India’s Biggest Gas Utility Is Opening Up Its Pipeline Network
India’s largest natural gas pipeline operator has invited users to book surplus network capacity online as the country prepares to create a distribution hub that sets benchmark prices. State-run GAIL India Ltd., which controls 70 percent of the nation’s network, on Monday launched a website for online bookings of pipeline capacity to ship gas across the country. GAIL, with 11,400 kilometers (7,084 miles) pipelines, is investing 250 billion rupees ($3.6 billion) to add another 5,000 kilometers, Chairman Bhuwan Chandra Tripathi said. Lion’s Share Greater sharing of infrastructure will allow quicker trading and movement of natural gas supplies and boost utilization of GAIL’s pipelines. India, home to some of the world’s most polluted cities, is seeking to cut emissions and its oil import bill by doubling the share of gas in the energy mix to 15 percent. “This is going to pave the foundation for the gas hub,” Tripathi said. “The online booking allows transparent and hassle-free access and increases the ease of operations, and pushes the country toward a gas-based economy.” Why Gas-Gorging Asia Wants an End to Faraway Pricing: QuickTake GAIL already has more than a hundred customers using its pipeline network on an open-access basis. Once the gas hub is operational, it will increase utilization of the company’s pipelines, which are operating at half capacity, Tripathi said. The Petroleum and Natural Gas Regulatory Board, which has been tasked with setting up the gas-trading exchange, expects the hub to be operational by December. India’s cabinet of ministers is expected to approve the gas exchange plan “soon,” Oil Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said Monday, without elaborating. Todd Frazier Jersey
IOCL plans to invest Rs 18.23 bn to expand east India’s first LPG pipeline
Oil marketing major Indian Oil Corporation Ltd (IOCL) is planning to augment eastern India’s first pipeline, the Paradip-Haldia-Durgapur LPG Pipeline and its extension up to Muzaffarpur and Patna, with an investment of Rs 18.23 billion. “Under the augmentation of Paradip-Haldia-Durgapur LPG Pipeline, new facilities will be added at Paradip and Balasore. We expect to commission the project by December 2020. This line will be extended to Muzaffarpur and Patna”, said P C Choubey, Executive Director (pipelines division), IOCL. The LPG requirement at Patna and Muzaffarpur are now met by train wagons and bullets. The investment is in addition to Rs 13.30 billion LPG pipeline planned by IOCL, the first in eastern India and proposed from Paradip to Durgapur for transportation of LPG from Paradip refinery, Choubey added. The Paradip-Haldia–Durgapur LPG pipeline will cater to the LPG demand of Odisha, Jharkhand and West Bengal and originates from Paradip. The pipeline will have pump stations at Paradip and Haldia and delivery stations at Balasore (Odisha), Budge Budge, Kalyani and Durgapur (West Bengal). IOCL has already commissioned the Paradip-Balasore section of the pipeline. “With the commissioning of 157-km Paradip-Balasore section pipeline, construction of pump station at Paradip and delivery station at Balasore, the road transportation of LPG from Paradip is eliminated, thereby reducing carbon emissions and traffic congestion,” sources said. Similarly, IOCL has already started work on laying of its Rs 23.21 billion Paradip-Hyderabad pipelines. It has already commissioned its Rs 18 billion Paradip-Raipur-Ranchi pipeline (PRRPL) for transport of products from Paradip refinery. IOC’s 15-mtpa capacity refinery at Paradip is spread over an area of 3,345 acres with an estimated cost of Rs 345.55 billion. The refinery can process 100 per cent high-sulphur and heavy crude oil to produce various petroleum products, including petrol and diesel of BS-IV quality, kerosene, aviation turbine fuel, propylene, sulphur, and petroleum coke. It is also designed to produce Euro-V premium quality motor spirit and other green auto fuel variants for export. Nathan Shepherd Authentic Jersey
Nepal, India discuss oil and gas co-operation
Nepal and India on Tuesday held a meeting on a range of bilateral trade related issues including oil and gas co-operation between the two countries. Visiting Minister Commerce, Industries and Supplies Matrika Prasad Yadav led the Nepali team and Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas of India, Dharmendra Pradhan, headed the Indian delegation during the meeting held at Shastri Bhawan. The meeting reportedly held discussions on feasibility study for setting up a gas pipeline, along with the under construction Mahottari-Amlekhgunj Petroleum Pipeline, for supplying cooking fuel to Nepal. Nepal buys all of its cooking gas needs from India, and the fuel is supplied to through gas bullets from refineries at Haldia, Panipat and Paradip. Nepali side has been saying that the laying of pipeline will cut the supply expenditure by gas bullets and will also end the problem of obstruction in supply. Nepal imports 25,000 tons of cooking gas in a month. Two years ago Nepal Oil Corporation (NOC) had formally requested the Indian Oil Corporation for setting up gas supply pipeline. During Prime Minister Oli’s India visit in April, PM K P Sharma Oli and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi had jointly launched the India-Nepal petroleum products pipeline from Motihari to Amlekhgunj. The 69-km long pipeline will supply 20,00,000 tons of oil annually. The pipeline project is expected to complete in two years. Likewise, the meeting also discussed the supply of natural gas for opening chemical fertilizer factory in Nepal in a bid to resolve problem of chemical fertilizer in Nepal. Mike Schmidt Authentic Jersey