Pipelines Industry in India: Recent Developments and Future Requirements

The consumption of petroleum products in India has been growing at a high rate. In order to meet the growing demand for petroleum, additional refining capacity is planned to be created involving augmentation of some of the existing refineries and construction of new refineries. While the refineries will be in a position to meet the demand of petroleum products, the critical and vital issue will be to supply crude oil to the refineries and to reach the products to various consumption centers in an efficient, reliable and cost effective manner. In addition to the liquid petroleum, Natural Gas is emerging as the major source of energy/feedstock. Infrastructure for storage and transportation of Natural Gas are also required to be set up in a big way to meet the projected demand. This can best be done by constructing new pipelines which are recognized worldwide as the most reliable and cost effective mode of transportation of oil and gas. In addition to the requirement for new pipelines, there is a need for upgradation of technology in the existing cross-country pipelines, many of which are more than 20 years old. Moreover, Indian Government has, as part of the process of liberalisation of the economy through a series of measures focused on the infrastructural developments, technology upgradation, trade policies and financial reforms, has opened the core sector of Petroleum to private investment. Thus, considerable scope exists not only for consultants, equipment and material manufacturers/suppliers and contractors for providing their services but also for making investments in the Indian pipeline industry. This paper describes the prospects/opportunities in the Indian pipeline industry.