BPCL will invest Rs 900 crore to set up a new LPG pipeline from Kochi to Coimbatore and enhance the storage capacity at its Irumpanam installation.
The 229 km LPG pipeline to Coimbatore at an investment of Rs 600 crore will minimise the road transportation of gas and connect the company’s bottling plants in Palakkad and Coimbatore thereby improving the distribution network, Prasad K.Panicker, Executive Director, BPCL Kochi Refinery, said.
Likewise, the company will invest another Rs 300 crore at its Irumpanam installation unit near the Kochi Refinery to increase the storage capacity to additional four million tonnes. It is expected that the storage capacity at the facility will be increased to 8 million tonnes with the completion of the Integrated Refinery Expansion Project (IREP), he said.
The funds for both these projects will be in addition to the Rs 14,225 crore investments set apart by the company for IREP, which envisaged to increase the refining capacity from the present 9.5 MMTPA to 15.5 MMTPA.
In an interaction with Business Line, Panicker said that the company intends to launch both these projects simultaneously with IREP project scheduled to be commissioned by September 2015.
The requirement of LPG in Kerala is estimated at 60,000 tonnes per month and BPCL is producing 45,000 tonnes. Once the completion of IREP, he said Kerala will have surplus LPG in the domestic market.
Similarly, there are also plans to extend its Kochi-Coimbatore-Karur pipelines to Bangalore to move various auto fuel products. Once the work is over, he said additional products such as petrol, diesel and kerosene can be moved by pipeline to Karur, Coimbatore and Bangalore.