Cairn India's 670 km-long crude carrier pipeline

Cairn's Barmer-Jamnagar pipeline to be commissioned in March

Cairn India's 670 km-long crude carrier pipeline, the longest in its category anywhere in the world, is nearing completion and will be commissioned next month, company sources said.

The pipeline will carry crude oil for refining from Banner in Rajasthan to Jamnagar in Gujarat, and beyond. Until now, Cairn India has been evacuating the Rajasthan crude using tankers.

In the first year, Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) is expected to refine 1.4 million barrels of the Rajasthan crude received from Cairn, which is likely to increase daily production from 20,000 to 50,000 barrels. Earlier, Cairn India had sent nearly two lakh barrels to Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd (MRPL), via the sea route from Kandla Port.

New Deals

Having concluded commercial terms with RIL, MRPL and IndianOil, Cairn is likely to tie up with other refiners for additional off-take. Construction on the pipeline project, which envisaged evacuation of crude oil to refiners including RIL, MRPL and IndianOil, had commenced in July 2008. Of the total 670-km length of the pipeline from Mangala Processing Terminal (MPT) to Bhogat (Jamnagar), the 590-km stretch of the pipeline, up to Salaya, was completed in December 2009 and work on the remaining 80 km is expected to be completed in March, company sources told Business Line here on Tuesday.

Hydro-testing is in progress to facilitate completion and commissioning of the pipeline, sources added. The crude oil pipeline section from MPT to Radhanpur (Gujarat) is in advanced stages of commissioning.

Construction activity is also nearing completion at the Viramgam Terminal location, on all the 33, above - ground installation stations, and the Salaya distribution hub.

Unique Feature

The pipeline is capable of transporting the entire produce of Mangala oilfield, the largest onshore oil find in 20 years, discovered in January 2004, where Cairn now has around 50 wells. Together, the Mangala, Bhagyam and Aishwarya oilfields have recoverable oil reserves and resources of nearly one billion barrels.

The Rajasthan Government is set to earn a royalty of Rs 36,000.crore ($7.6.billion), over the life of the project. The unique feature of Cairn India's pipeline is that it is the world's longest, continuously heated and insulated pipeline to evacuate crude from the Mangala field. The export pipeline route from source at the MPT to Bhogat, passes through eight districts and more than 250 villages in Rajasthan and Gujarat. At present, the longest pipelines using this technology are in Russia (160 km) and Indonesia (115 km).

In order to ensure the flow of the Rajasthan crude, which is waxy in nature, temperature will have to be continuously maintained above 65 degrees centigrade.

This resulted in customising the existing heating technology into the Skin Effect Heat Management System (SEHMS), an innovative system by far the longest of its kind in the world today.

By Virendra Pandit , Business Line, New Delhi, February 24, 2010