IndianOil, RPL, BPCL submit EoIs for Central India pipeline

Prasanna Upadhyay

Mumbai, Sept 17: Indian Oil Corporation (IOC), Reliance Petroleum Corporation (RPL) and Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd (BPCL) have put in an expression of interest each for transporting petroleum products through the Rs 5,200-crore Central India pipeline.

Sources said that apart from the Indian companies, three foreign oil companies have also put in their expression of interest. The 1,700-km pipeline for evacuation of petroleum products, including petrol, diesel, kerosene and naphtha from refineries in Gujarat, will be implemented on a build, own, operate and transfer (BOOT) basis.

Petronet India Ltd (PIL), a non-governmental company promoted by IOC, BPCL and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd (HPCL) for laying pipelines for transporting petroleum products, would implement the construction of the Central India pipeline.

The pipeline project is expected to be commissioned by December 2003. RPL, IOC and Petronet India would hold 26 per cent stake each in the mega pipeline project, while BPCL and Essar Oil would have 11 per cent each.

Petroleum products would be injected in the pipeline from Reliance’s 27-million metric tonnes refinery in Jamnagar and Essar’s proposed nine-million tonne refinery at Jamnagar and IOC’s Koyali refinery. Sources said that the company is working out the terms and conditions for operating the pipeline.

The Central India pipeline project would extend from Jamnagar to Ratlam via Rajkot and Koyali. From Ratlam, one section would branch to Gwalior and the other section would branch to Nagpur via Itarsi to feed various consumption zones in central India, sources added. It would either be terminated at Nagpur, or extended to Hyderabad, depending upon the viability of the Nagpur-Hyderabad section.
Branch pipelines are planned for Indore and Bhopal from the Ratlam-Itarsi section. Meanwhile, PIL has put on hold work on two other pipeline projects — the Bina Kanpur pipeline and the Paradip Rourkela pipeline. Both projects had been approved by the ministry of petroleum last year.

While the Bina refinery is awaiting environment clearance from the Gujarat government, the issue of state tax has held up work at the Paradeep refinery.

Sources said that the ground work for the pipelines has been completed, but construction work has been put on hold.
“Till work on the refineries starts in full swing, PIL would not go ahead with the pipeline projects,” a source said.