The Indian Oil Corporation Ltd has supplied fuel as a bouquet offering for the prestigious 40th Indian Scientific Expedition to Antarctica (ISEA) mission.
IOCL has supplied Jet A1 fuel, lubes and Marine Gas Oil (MGO). The aviation fuel, Jet A1, has been supplied in bulk and packed form to a non-aviation customer and is delivered to an ocean-going vessel for the first time.
The country’s major fuel supplier, Indian Oil Corporation Ltd. has supplied Jet A1 fuel, lubes and Marine Gas Oil (MGO) as a bouquet offering for the prestigious 40th Indian Scientific Expedition to Antarctica (ISEA) mission. The unique feature of this supply is that the aviation fuel Jet A1 has been supplied in bulk and packed form to a non-aviation customer and is delivered to an ocean-going vessel for the first time.
The Antarctica expedition is procuring fuel from India after about 22 years. Till the last expedition, fuel was being obtained from outside the country.
On 4th January, at Mormugao Port Goa, Gurmeet Singh, Director (Marketing) of Indian Oil and Dr. M. Ravichandran, Director of NCPOR, in the presence of Dr. E. Ramesh Kumar, Chairman of Mormugao Port Trust and Dr. N. Vinodkumar, Postmaster General of Goa Region attended the fuelling ceremony.
This 40th expedition marks four decades of Indian scientific endeavour in Antarctica and is being undertaken with the ice class vessel MV Vasiliy Golovnin, which has a heli-hangar that accommodates two helicopters used for conveyance in the field and to move cargo between the ship and the Antarctic stations.
The first Indian expedition to Antarctica sailed from Goa on December 6, 1981 and reached the shores of this polar continent on January 9, 1982. India has two stations in the polar continent of Antarctica – Maitri and Bharati, which are being operated under NCPOR, Ministry of Earth Sciences (Govt. of India).
