IOC to invest Rs 37 billion to expand pipelines

Hiran Seneviratne in Singapore

Indian Oil Corp (IOC), a state-run oil refiner, plans to invest around Indian Rs 14.8 billion on expanding pipelines carrying crude oil and petroleum products.

The company is also involved in the Sri Lankan fuel business for sometime and has diversified into other businesses like lubricants and bunkering.

Lanka IOC Managing Director R. Ramakrishnan said that IOC India has an interest in Sri Lanka as Sri Lanka is also going for oil explorations in the near future.

IOC intends to increase pipeline capacity from 61.718 million tonnes to 75.480 million tonnes by the end of March 2008.

The company will invest Rs 11.78 billion in the 11 million tonne Paradip-Haldia crude oil pipeline, and Rs 2.25 billion in the 2 million tonne Koyali-Ratlam pipeline for transport of petroleum products.

It will invest another Rs 458 million in aviation turbine fuel (ATF) pipeline from Chennai refinery to Air Force Station in Chennai city, and Rs 286 million in the augmentation of Bongaingaon-Siliguri section of the Guwahati-Siliguri pipeline.

IOC is also considering building a liquefied natural gas (LNG) import terminal at Ennore in Tamil Nadu. ‘IOC is in the process of negotiating with various prospective LNG suppliers for long-term supply of LNG,’ the Minister of State for Petroleum and Natural Gas said.

Ramakrishnan said that participating for oil and petroleum related conferences and exhibitions like StocExpo will help to share konwledge and techonology since Sri Lanka is into oil explorations.

‘Singapore is not a oil-rich country but it is now positioned as Asia’s leading oil trading and blending centre. Therefore Sri Lanka has all potentials but it does not make use of its opportunities with all its resources, he said.

IOC India is a fourtune 500 company and having its presence in Sri Lanka will bring a lot of advantages with the starting off oil explorations.

Pristine Oil (Malaysia), an oil and gas consultancy firm will invest RM1.8 billion (372 million) to build Malaysia’s first crude storage complex.

The Kedah crude storage complex in Yan, Malaysia will serve the Straits of Malacca tanker traffic.

Work on the site will begin in 2008 and is due for a 2010 completion. The complex will be built on a 100ha site at the Yan Petroleum Industry Zone, with a planned 52 crude storage tanks amounting to total capacity of 1 million tonnes.

Siemens Malaysia will build the complex. The company will also help to develop Pristine Oil’s electrical, fire protection and security, water and waste water systems for the storage complex.

Pristine Oil is negotiating with Royal Vopak for custom.

Its first customer is Turkish company Alarco. Malaysia is now developing rapidly and it would become one of the richest countries in the world by the year 2020. Malaysia has also imposed a number of power and energy saving programmes to face the increasing oil prices.