India has chosen a route different from the one selected by Bangladesh for the onshore pipeline to carry petroleum fuels from India's Numaligarh refinery, which will hand down to Dhaka huge works, a top official said.
Both the sides short-listed the routes from initial four options proposed by the Indian state-run Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd (BPCL).
Director for Operations and Planning of Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation (BPC) Mosleh Uddin disclosed the latest developments to the FE.
The cross-border pipeline has been planned to carry petroleum products from BPCL's Numaligarh refinery in Assam into oil- storage tanks of the state-run BPC at Parbatipur in northern Bangladesh.
He said the length of the pipeline route that Bangladesh has selected would be of 145.63 kilometres, of which 75 kms would fall in Bangladesh territory and the remainder in India's. The BPCL-selected pipeline would be of 129 kms in length, of which only 5 kms would be within Indian territory while a long 124-km portion within Bangladesh, said the BPC official.
"We shall select one pipeline route after necessary scrutinising," Mr Mosleh Uddin said.
He said a feasibility study would be carried out on the selected one before initiating construction work on the pipeline.
If established, it would be the first cross-country pipeline to carry any sort of energy between these two neighbouring countries in South Asia.
The BPCL authorities earlier had proposed four routes to BPC after carrying out a preliminary survey to select a final pipeline route for construction of the cross-country pipeline to facilitate fuel import from India.
Both the state-owned petroleum companies of Bangladesh and India agreed earlier to build together the first trans-border oil pipeline between them that will initially pump 300,000 tonnes of diesel per year from BPCL's Numaligarh refinery into Bangladesh.
Officials from the two state-owned corporations have held discussions several times over the proposed pipeline and agreed to go ahead with the project for execution.
"Both BPC and BPCL have agreed to invest in the project," said the BPC official.
If everything goes according to plan, BPC might start importing refined oils from Bharat Petroleum's refinery in India's northeastern Assam state within 2016.
The BPCL has 61.5 per cent stake in the 3.0 million-tonne-per-year-capacity Numaligarh refinery located near Bangladesh's northeastern frontier. Oil India Limited has 26 per cent stakes and the government of Assam has 12.35 per cent with the refinery.
Once implemented, the pipeline is expected to reduce Bangladesh's oil-import cost and time, as well as transportation losses.
BPC, Bangladesh's sole oil importer, is planning to initially import around 300,000 tonnes of diesel annually from the refinery, which could potentially increase more than threefold to 1.0 million tonnes a year within three to four years, said the BPC official.
azizjst@yahoo.com
Delhi makes Indo-Bangla petroleum pipeline detour
FE Report | Published: February 18, 2015 00:00:00 | Updated: November 30, 2026 06:01:00
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