HPCL charges ahead with three pipelines
Hindustan Petroleum is charging ahead with three new product pipelines costing over Rs2000cr ($332m) to support its growing fuel retail sales which have doubled since 2010.
HPCL, which has a 20% share of India's fuel retail market, saw fuel sales rise an impressive 15% last year to Rs215,000cr ($34bn) though profits remained flat at Rs900cr ($140m). HPCL tells PETROWATCH it plans to hire KazStroy in October to lay an 18-inch diameter, 440-km products pipeline from Rewari in Haryana to Kanpur in Uttar Pradesh.
KazStroy will get 45 days to mobilise men and equipment. Pipe deliveries from Jindal Saw Pipes have already started to come in.
This Rs1210cr ($201m) pipeline will branch off HPCL’s established products pipeline from Mundra to Delhi and carry 7.98m t/y of petrol, diesel or kerosene. Earlier this month (September) HPCL placed orders to lay a 356-km LPG pipeline from Mangalore Port and HPCL-affiliate Mangalore Refinery in Karnataka to Mysore and Bangalore through Hassan, also in the state.
Kalpataru will lay a 165-km stretch of the Rs666cr ($111m) pipeline which will have a 3.1m t/y capacity. Ace Pipeline Contracts will lay the remaining 191-km.
HPCL has ordered pipes with 16-inch, 14-inch and 10-inch diameters from Maharashtra Seamless, Jindal Saw Pipes and Ratnamani Metals & Tubes. In July, Ace Pipeline began laying HPCL's separate Rs134cr ($22m) 10-inch diameter, 92-km products pipeline from Awa to Salawas in Rajasthan to carry 2.3m t/y of petrol, diesel or kerosene for storage at Salawas.