BPCL, HPCL take 25% stake each in IOC's Rs 10,000-crore LPG pipeline project

NEW DELHI: Indian Oil, Bharat Petroleum and Hindustan Petroleum will jointly lay the world’s largest liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) pipeline between Gujarat and Uttar Pradesh at an estimated cost of Rs 10,000 crore.
The three state-run refiners signed a joint venture agreement Monday evening, Indian Oil said in a statement. The 2757-km-long pipeline will connect Kandla in Gujarat to Gorakhpur in Uttar Pradesh, feeding LPG to 22 bottling plants in three states, strengthening the supply infrastructure of the fuel that’s largely used in India for cooking.

Indian Oil will own 50% stake in the joint venture company while HPCL and BPCL will own 25% each, as per the statement. Indian Oil had first expressed interest in building this pipeline by itself in 2016. Later, HPCL and BPCL too joined the venture.

The pipeline will source LPG from import terminal on the west coast as well as IOC’s Koyali refinery in Gujarat and BPCL’s Bina refinery in Madhya Pradesh.

The pipeline can transport up to 8.25 million metric tonnes of LPG in a year, which is equal to a quarter of India’s current LPG demand, as per the statement.

A sharp increase in access to cooking gas has raised demand for cooking gas lately. With new customers, mainly from disadvantaged sections of the society, likely to boost consumption of the fuel in future, the demand is only going to go up from here.