The logo of the Indian Oil Corporation during the World Gas Conference exhibition in Paris. AFP
The government of Nepal has begun the process to establish another pipeline in Jhapa, buoyed by South Asia’s first cross-border pipeline in Amlekhgunj through which oil started flowing from India last September.
A team from Indian Oil Corporation, which built the Amlekhgunj pipeline as a gift, has conducted a survey for the proposed pipeline connecting Nepal Oil Corporation’s depot at Charali, Jhapa with Siliguri, which lies across the eastern border in West Bengal, India.
Nepal Oil Corporation’s Jhapa depot chief Bipin Kumar Shrestha said the Indian team made the field study on February 12.
Experts carried out the survey in Batasi in northern West Bengal, about 3km from the India-Bangladesh border and Jyamirgadi in Jhapa.
“The survey team also studied three rivers, Mechi, Ninda and Hadiya, on the east-west highway,” he said.
The team will submit its survey report to Indian Oil Corporation, and after that a financial assessment of the project will be prepared. The distance between the Indian Oil Corporation depot in Siliguri and the Nepal Oil Corporation depot in Charali is 50km.
“This distance can be reduced,” Shrestha said, quoting the survey team.
Last month, Nepal Oil Corporation requested the Indian government to study the possibility of building another cross-border pipeline during a meeting of the Nepal-India Petroleum and Gas Joint Working Group in New Delhi, India.
Nepal Oil Corporation spokesperson Birendra Goit said the agenda has been discussed at a commerce secretary-level meeting between Nepal and India too.
“The pipeline will provide a number of benefits that will reduce the supply cost.”
Nepal Oil Corporation officials said the transportation of petrol through the pipeline is expected to slash Nepal’s fuel import cost immensely. It can also significantly reduce leakage and wastage. With reduced use of tankers to carry fuel, there will also be a significant benefit to the environment.
The 69km Amlekhgunj pipeline brings fuel from India’s Barauni refinery in Bihar to Nepal.
Of the pipeline’s 69km length, a 36km section lies on the Nepali side of the border and the rest on the Indian side.
The 10-inch (25.4cm) diameter pipeline has a capacity to transport two million tonnes of oil per annum.
Petroleum supplies from Indian Oil Corporation to Nepal Oil Corporation started in 1974.
Nepal Oil Corporation said it has been able to save two billion Nepali rupees ($17.5 million) annually in freight charges and avoid the vagaries of transportation via tanker truck at the Birgunj border point after it started getting fuel through the pipeline. It currently takes at least 14 hours to ferry petrol from Patna to Amlekhgunj.
THE KATHMANDU POST/ASIA NEWS NETWORK
