Moving oil: Pipelines to take over from Railways in AP

Amit Mitra

INDIAN Railways will have to look for an alternative fuel, much beyond the realm of petroleum products, to drive its freight economy in Andhra Pradesh. The reason: two cross-country pipelines being laid by Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd (HPCL) and Gas Authority of India Ltd (GAIL) from Vizag to Hyderabad will shut the oil tap permanently for the Railways in Andhra Pradesh.

Indeed, the 350-km Vizag-Vijayawada pipeline of HPCL, commissioned in the second half of 1998, has already snatched a major share of the Railways oil traffic it had to re-deploy about 170 oil wagons from Vizag, which had till then been evacuating 4,000 tonnes of petroleum products per day for mainline distribution in the State. Now, HPCL, which recently expanded the capacity of its Vizag refinery from 4.5 million tonnes to 7.5 million tonnes, is all set to wrap up the extended stretch of Vijayawada-Hyderabad pipeline (223 km) at least two months ahead of the original schedule of May 2002.

While this pipeline will take care of the entire mainline distribution of high speed diesel (HSD), motor spirit (MS), superior kerosene oil (SKO) and naphtha from the Vizag refinery, a second pipeline being laid by GAIL along the same route will handle the entire LPG distribution in the State by the time it is commissioned in September 2003.

For the Railways this, understandably, means a significant dent in its revenue, as oil traffic constituted a major part of its freight earnings. But, for oil and gas companies, pipeline transportation means a cheaper, safer and easier route for mainline oil distribution.

Says Mr K. Murali, Chief General Manager of HPCLs Vizag refinery: The unit cost of oil movement through pipeline, rail and road are in the ratio of 1:1.5:2.5. This mode of transportation is also energy-efficient, as only the product moves through the pipelines, and there is no back movement of empty rakes or trucks. It is also safe and not subject to natural calamities or man-made disturbances, and has flexibility in capacity increase at short notice by use of drag reducer.

As a matter of fact, even viewed from the national context, the pipeline movement of petroleum products is gaining ground. The Vizag-Vijayawada pipeline is HPCLs second and largest (the other one being the 161-km long Mumbai-Pune pipeline) and the countrys 10th cross-country petroleum product pipeline.

From evacuating 27 per cent of the countrys petroleum products for domestic distribution in 1994-95, the pipeline movement of oil has risen to 29 per cent in 1996-97 and is expected to touch 34 per cent this fiscal. This has taken a significant load off the other modes of transportation the share of road and rail movement are expected to fall from 23 per cent and 43 per cent in 1994-95 to 21 per cent and 40 per cent respectively this fiscal.

The Rs 470-crore Vizag-Vijayawada product pipeline of HPCL has convincingly demonstrated the superiority of pipeline movement over other modes of oil transportation. The pipeline has been effecting transportation of oil at the rate of 400 kl to 650 kl per hour round-the-clock, without any disturbances in movement so far.

The throughput, which was 1.33 million tonnes in the first year of operation in 1998-99 and 2.60 million tonnes and 2.98 million tonnes in the two subsequent years, is poised to touch 3.20 million tonnes this fiscal. After the Vijayawada-Hyderabad stretch is completed, the entire pipeline can evacuate 5.38 million tonnes by 2007-2008, pointed out Mr Murali.

In its present spread, the Vizag-Vijayawada pipeline caters to the demand in East Godavari, West Godavari, Krishna, Guntur, Prakasam, Nalagonda, Warangal, Khamam, Adilabad, Karimnagar, Medak and Mahboobnagar districts of Andhra Pradesh. The products are moved from the Rajahmundry tap-off-cum-booster station and the Vijayawada receiving station which has a storage capacity of 2.22 lakh KL of MS, HSD, SKO and naphtha to interior places through tank trucks and tank wagons.

According to Mr S. S. Kosana, Sr. Installation Manager of the Vijayawada terminal, a state-of-the-art Terminal Automation System (TAS) has been installed at the receiving station, which completely eliminates manual work in truck loading and tankage operations.

Overall, HPCL has accorded high priority to safety aspects. Explains Mr M. V. R. Krishnaswamy, Chief Manager of the Vizag-Vijayawada pipeline: We inject corrosion inhibitors at the pumping stations to battle internal corrosion, while Coal Tar Enamel (CTE) coating is applied to stave off external corrosion. The entire length of the pipeline is protected by Impressed Current Cathodic Protection (ICCP) system, while the pumping stations are controlled through Programmable Logic Controllers (PLCs) and the pipeline operations monitored by a Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) system, which also has leak detection devices. The SCADA system, he said, helps ensure that all sectionalising valves and station limit valves at any location along the pipeline can be closed or opened during emergency. A single command from the control room can make all the pumps and valves shut down in logical sequence, he explained.

While the Vizag-Hyderabad pipeline will take care of the entire mainline distribution of non-LPG petroleum products, the Rs 500-crore GAIL pipeline, connecting HPCLs Vizag refinery to Hyderabad via Vijayawada, will handle the entire mainline LPG movement in the State. With the pipeline-laying work set to commence shortly, the GAIL pipeline will have a capacity to transport 1.164 million tonnes of LPG annually. In other words, it will be delivering LPG equivalent to 2.5 lakh cylinders per day to HPCL and other oil marketing companies at Vijayawada and Hyderabad for market distribution.

With the GAIL pipeline scheduled to be completed by September 2003, the Railways will soon hardly have any role to play in the movement of LPG and petroleum products in the State.