State-owned Indian Oil Corp. Ltd is set to invest heavily in logistics that will see the bulk of its petroleum product transport go off roads and railway lines into long-distance pipelines.
Chairman B. Ashok said IndianOil is framing a Rs15,750 crore investment plan to add 7,550km of long-distance pipeline for petroleum products.
This, along with another 8,000km under-construction pipeline projects, will take the company’s total network to 27,550km over the next few years for transporting fuel from refineries to depots and LPG from import terminals to various bottling plants.
IndianOil, at present has a pipeline network of 12,000km and throughput capacity of 85.5 MT a year.
The state-owned oil firm is investing Rs17,500 crore on the projects which are under construction.
While one of the planned long-distance LPG pipelines will connect Kandla in Gujarat to Gorakhpur in Uttar Pradesh through central India, the other will connect Chennai to Bengaluru.
Expanding the pipeline network is also set to help IndianOil’s diversification into gas marketing business. The company is setting up liquefied natural gas (LNG) import terminals and is venturing into city gas distribution business in a big way in partnerships with other firms.