Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) and Cairn India Ltd.(CIL) have resolved differences for building a US340-mn pipeline to evacuate crude oil from Barmer,Rajasthan to Gujarat."We have reached an understanding for setting up a pipeline to take the Rajasthan crude to Gujarat," said Mr.R.S.Sharma,Chairman and Managing Director,ONGC.He said that the dispute earlier was if MRPL,which was the official offtaker of the Rajasthan crude,alone would be responsible for laying the pipeline."Now,we have an understanding that the pipeline will be built jointly," he said.Cairn-ONGC will build a 340-km line to IOC's Viramgam terminal in Gujarat.Viramgam is connected by pipelines to IOC's Koyali,Panipat and Mathura refineries-the potential customers of Rajasthan crude.A smaller pipeline can then be built to the west coast or Jamnagar where Reliance Industries and Essar Oil have refineries.The Petroleum Ministry has reportedly given its consent to include the pipeline cost in the field development plan for the Rajasthan fields as this would be recoverable.Like the cost for developing Mangala,Bhagyam and Aishwariya fields,the pipeline investment will also be shared between CIL and ONGC in the ratio of 70:30,which is the current equity structure of the two companies in the fields.The construction will take 12-18 months.Feasibility study on the technical aspects of the pipeline is currently going on.The crude from Rajasthan is heavy with high wax content and requires specialised pipelines to transport it from Barmer.The feasibility study would also bring out the issue of cost recovery and the size of pipeline that is required.
展开▼
