The Hindu Business Line : IOC's Paradip-Haldia pipeline commissioning may be delayed

THE commissioning of Indian Oil Corporation's Rs 1,178-crore Paradip-Haldia crude pipeline inclusive of single buoy mooring and storage facility at Paradip may be delayed. The project was scheduled to be commissioned by March 2006.

"The commissioning of the pipeline and allied facility is in the last leg of completion. However, the project may be delayed by one or two months as construction could not progress at the desired pace due to heavy rains during monsoons," an official said. The 700-km pipeline will join Haldia-Barauni crude pipeline at Haldia, thereby replacing the existing system of supplying crude to Haldia and Barauni refineries of six million tonnes each through Haldia port.

Apart from ensuring assured supply of larger volume of crude, the project will reduce the crude transportation cost to both the refineries substantially.

Haldia refinery will benefit the most from this and is expecting a net positive impact of $1 per barrel in its gross refining margin.

IOC has decided to expand the refinery capacity to 7.5 million tonnes. The company was allowed to acquire part of the unused land of the closed facility of Hindustan Fertiliser Ltd at Haldia for carrying out the refinery expansion.

A separate project has also been taken up to produce Euro-III grade fuel at Haldia refinery.

Panipat refinery: Meanwhile to augment crude supplies from Gujarat Adani Port to expanded Panipat refinery (12 million tonnes), IOC has taken up a Rs 305-crore pipeline project in the west coast.

The project includes setting up of adequate storage facility at Mundra, commissioning of greenfield crude pipeline from Mundra oil terminal to Kandla and conversion of Kandla-Panipat section of the existing product pipeline (from Panipat to Bhatinda in Punjab) into a crude pipeline.

Petroleum products: On the product side, projects lined up for commissioning are Koyali-Dahej (112 km) and Koyali-Ratlam (274 km) pipelines.

The projects will ensure cost effective assured supply of petroleum products from IOC's largest refinery at Koyali in Gujarat to the hinterlands of Western and Central India.