NRL going ahead with Siliguri-Parbatipur oil pipeline

Assam-based Numaligarh Refinery Limited (NRL) is pursuing its plans to lay a 135 km petroleum product pipeline from its terminal at Siliguri in West Bengal to Parbatipur in Bangladesh.

The pipeline will facilitate sustained export of motor spirit or petrol and high-speed diesel.

“The requisite field survey and DFR (detailed feasibility report) for this pipeline have been completed,” S Varadarajan, chairman and managing director of Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL), said after NRL’s 22nd annual general meeting in Guwahati on Friday.

BPCL has majority stakes in the Rs 33 billion NRL, which is often referred to as Assam Accord refinery.

The accord, signed in 1985, had brought the curtains down on a six-year agitation for ejection of illegal migrants from Assam.

“A memorandum of understanding has been signed between NRL and Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation to form a joint venture company for implementing the pipeline project,” Varadarajan said.

NRL is more upbeat about the Siliguri-Parbatipur pipeline than a similar project linking one of its product terminals to Myanmar.

“Apart from bureaucratic hurdles, we have issues related to the convertibility of kyat (Myanmar currency),” a senior NRL officer said, declining to be quoted.

NRL has completed 15 years of successful operations, recording the highest ever net profit of Rs 718.31 crore during the 2014-15 fiscal. This translated into a growth of 93.57% over the net profit of the previous fiscal.

The refinery also recorded a distillate yield of 90.69% in 2014-15, the highest among the public sector undertaking refineries in India.