Centre plans to carry oil to N-E through pipelines

Northeast India has a perennial problem of scarcity of cooking gas, petrol and diesel in times of natural calamity, ethnic violence erupts and economic blockades since they are transported to the remote region via roads.

To solve the  issue, New Delhi is planning a network of pipelines to carry petroleum products to all the state capitals, apart from making the region a hydrocarbon hub of the country in 15 years by investing Rs 1,30,000 crore.

“Under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, we decided to prepare a separate vision document for Northeast to take the region forward. The region has huge potential and requires specific attention and investment for its development,” Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan Pradhan said while releasing the Hydrocarbon Vision 2030 for Northeast India.

Northeast has over 3000 km pipeline network for transportation of gas and petroleum products. “The Centre will soon launched the ambitious plan of laying a network of 7000 km-long pipelines across the region to maintain a smooth supply chain,” the minister said. Earlier, Prime Minister Narendra Modi declared that the production capacity of all the refineries in Assam would be enhanced.

“To achieve this target, Rs 1,30,000 crore investment will be made by different players in the next 15 years in Northeast. This means, every year Rs 8,000 crore to Rs 10,000 crore investment will be made and most will come to Assam,” the minister added.

Detailing the plans, the minister said Rs 80,000 crore will be required for upstream activities of existing and new oil and gas blocks for exploration. Another Rs 20, 000 crore will be required for midstream actions, including setting up of four new natural gas pipelines, five new Port of Loading pipelines and three new LPG pipelines  and in the downstream area, three existing refineries will be expanded. In addition, a new bio-refinery will be set up at Numaligarh and CGD network will be developed across the region at a total investment of Rs 30,000 crore.

There are four refineries in the region with a combined installed capacity of 7 million metric tonnes per annum.
DH News Service