Paradip Numaligarh Crude Pipeline and New Mundra–Panipat Oil Pipeline will be among world’s longest
Photo: iStock_ India is among the top five developers of oil pipelines, which are under construction and proposed, according to an analysis by Global Energy Monitor, a non-profit that tracks energy projects.
The country is constructing 1,630 km long oil transmission pipelines, ranking second globally in the pipelines under construction category. With 1,194 km long proposed pipelines, India secured the 10th spot, the analysis showed.
Along with India, the other top countries with pipelines under construction and proposed include the United States, Iraq, Iran and Tanzania.
Some 9,100 km of oil transmission pipelines are globally under construction and 21,900 km are proposed.
These pipelines in development are estimated to cost $131.9 billion in capital expenditure.
Leading 20 countries for in-development pipelines
Source: Global Oil Infrastructure Tracker, Global Energy Monitor, May 2023 release
Overall, some 31,000 km of oil pipelines are under development globally. This represents a nearly 30 per cent increase from this time last year.
Of this, 49 per cent of oil pipelines under development are in Africa and the Middle East. The cost of the infrastructure is estimated to be around $25.3 billion.
The two regions are home to 4,400 km of crude oil transmission pipelines at an estimated cost of $14.4 billion.
Also, 10,800 km of pipelines are proposed in these regions at an estimated cost of $59.8 billion.
“The crude expansion in Africa and the Middle East is pumped as a panacea to the chaos of global energy demand, which is driven in large part by Europe’s scramble for oil and gas outside of Russia,” Baird Langenbrunner, project manager for Global Oil Infrastructure Tracker, said in a statement.
The infrastructure is expensive, and it will leave behind stranded assets as the world moves towards cleaner energy. Oil pipelines, for example, can become stranded assets when they are no longer in use and may end up as a liability before the end of their economic lifetime.
The solution, Langenbrunner added, is not to build more crude oil pipelines but to use that money and build reliable, low-carbon energy systems and transmission networks.
Longest pipelines in the world
Source: Global Oil Infrastructure Tracker, Global Energy Monitor, May 2023 release
The top five companies developing the oil transmission pipelines include state-owned enterprises as well as private companies: Iran’s Ministry of Petroleum, the China National Petroleum Corporation, Iraq’s Ministry of Oil, India’s Numaligarh Refinery Limited and France’s TotalEnergies.
In India, Paradip Numaligarh Crude Pipeline (under construction) and New Mundra–Panipat Oil Pipeline (proposed) will be among the longest oil pipelines in the world.
Paradip Numaligarh Crude Pipeline will begin in Paradip port. It will pass through Odisha, West Bengal, Jharkhand, Bihar and Assam and end in the Numaligarh refinery in Assam. The project is owned by Numaligarh Refinery Ltd, a public-sector oil company in Assam. It is expected to start functioning in 2024.
The proposed New Mundra–Panipat Oil Pipeline will begin in Chudva in Kachchh district, Gujarat and pass through Nagaur, Jalore, Jhunjhunu, Sikar, Jodhpur and Pali districts in Rajasthan, before terminating in the Indian Oil Company Ltd’s Panipat refinery in Haryana, India.
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