State-run Indian Oil (IOC) on Thursday said it is setting up a new crude oil pipeline system with a nameplate capacity of 17.5 million tonne per annum (MTPA) from the port city of Mundra in Gujarat to its Panipat refinery in Haryana. The estimated cost of the project is Rs 9,028 crore, which also includes installing nine crude oil storage tanks of 60,000 kilolitres each at Mundra.
The new pipeline system and storage tanks would help in meeting the higher crude oil requirement after the expansion of IOC’s Panipat refinery. The Rs 32,946 crore expansion programme is currently underway at the refinery to increase its capacity from 15 MTPA to 25 MTPA. The company’s board, in June, had also sanctioned the initial approval for setting up India’s first-ever “Styrene Monomer Project” at an estimated cost of Rs 4,495 crore in the refinery, which will utilize the ethylene to be produced in the refinery’s upcoming INDMAX Unit.
The Mundra-Panipat crude oil pipeline project is expected to be completed in synchronization with the commissioning of refinery expansion, the company said. IOC operates a network of more than 15,000 km long crude oil, petroleum product and gas pipelines. It added 337 km of additional pipeline length during FY21.