Highly placed sources said the proposal to shift the unloading point to Pipavav, about 150 km away from the orginal site of Vadinar, meant the project would be delayed further by another two years.

The refinery in Bina, being put up by Bharat Petroleum and Oman Oil Company as a joint venture, will get imported crude at Vadinar and transported to Bina through a cross-country pipeline running a distance of 900 km according to the original proposal. The authorities have bought the right of way from Vadinar to Bina to put up the pipline.

Sources said the authorities have also prepared the turnkey bid documents for the refinery as well as the crude pipline and were ready to float thedocuments. But the proposal to shift the port to Pipavav would mean these all this arrangments would go haywire.

Sources said the Vadinar unloading point, which is also used by the Reliance refinery, has deep-draft facilities which can accommodate large crude carriers of up to three tonne dwt.

The Pipavav Port suggested for the Bina refinery has a much lower draft, and the project will be put into serious financial loss in view of an increased transport cost and higher demurrages since the port can handle only small crude carriers.

Sources said the proposal to shift the terminal was mooted by petroleum minister VK ramamurthy and top officials of the ministry.

The Bina refinery project was delayed due to environmental clearance from the central government. But the Reliance refinery at Jamnagar faced no such problem, the sources said. The inordinate delay in setting up the refinery in Bina would adversely affect the petroleum-product availablity in central India.