The Hindu Business Line : IndianOil to implement Panipat-Jalandhar pipeline

Cost-effective move
The pipeline project will evacuate LPG from IndianOil's refinery at Panipat and transport it to the bottling plants at Nabha and Jalandhar

New Delhi , June 13

Indian Oil Corporation Ltd (IndianOil) today said that it has initiated activities for the implementation of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) pipeline from Panipat in Haryana to Jalandhar in Punjab.

The pipeline project, being implemented at a cost of Rs 185 crore, will evacuate LPG from IndianOil's mega refinery at Panipat and transport it to the bottling plants at Nabha and Jalandhar, a company statement issued here said.

The project involves installation of originating pump station at Kohand in Panipat, laying of a 275-km pipeline to Jalandhar and installation of delivery station at Nabha and a terminal station at Jalandhar.

"The pipeline will ensure a drastic reduction in LPG transportation costs compared to the road transportation," said Mr A.M. Uplenchwar, Director (Pipelines), IndianOil.

The company has LPG bottling plants at Kamal and Gurgaon in Haryana, at Jalandhar and Nabha (Punjab), at Una and Baddi (Himachal Pradesh) and at Jammu and Leh (Jammu and Kashmir).

The LPG requirement of these bottling plants is currently met from the Panipat refinery as well as from Loni Tap Off Point (TOP), which receives LPG through GAIL (India) Ltd's Jamnagar-Loni LPG pipeline.

The pipeline would ensure cost-effective and uninterrupted transportation of LPG to the bottling plants particularly where demand concentrations are high, Mr Uplenchwar said. In addition, Amritsar, Ludhiana and Bhatinda are the three potential locations for the setting up of new bottling plants, which can be fed from Nabha or Jalandhar once the pipeline is installed, he added.

He further added that the availability of LPG along with other petroleum product would increase substantially with the expansion in capacity and other projects of Panipat refinery. The project, on augmentation of Panipat Refinery to 12 million tonnes per annum (mtpa) capacity, is nearing completion and further expansion of the capacity of Panipat Refinery to 15 mtpa is scheduled to be commissioned by March 2008.

In addition, residue fluidized catalytic cracking revamp project at Panipat Refinery is already under implementation and IndianOil is also installing naphtha cracker unit at Panipat.