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IOCL to pump fuel from Chennai to Bangalore

BANGALORE: The oil route just got a little closer.

To bring down transportation costs, avoid pilferage and reduce pollution, Indian Oil Corporation Ltd., (IOCL) has begun work on a 290-km underground pipeline, which will bring petrol, diesel, kerosene and aviation turbine fuel (ATF) from Chennai to Bangalore.

The pipeline will have a capacity to carry 2.8 million tonnes of fuel a year.

The proposed pipeline, on the lines of the one which was recently commissioned between IOCL’s Devanagondi Terminal on the outskirts of the city to Bengaluru International Airport (BIA) to pump aviation turbine fuel, is likely to become operational by December next, according to senior IOCL officials.

Since the pipeline will be underground, chances of disruption in supply even during strife are less.

At present, IOCL procures over five million litres of fuel a day from its Chennai Petroleum Corporation Ltd., (CPCL).

Much of this fuel is transported through railway tankers and the remaining by road.

IOCL officials said that work on pumping and receiving stations in Chennai and Devanagondi had begun.

The pipeline, estimated to cost Rs. 250 crore, would pass through many villages and towns in Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh before reaching Bangalore. Initially designed to transfer 1.4 million tonnes of fuel a year, the capacity of the pipeline had been increased to transfer 2.8 million tonnes, said a senior official.

The flow of fuel will be monitored using state-of-the-art Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition system with provision for built-in failsafe processes and leak detection mechanism.

This will ensure safety and security, including shutting down the pipeline system automatically if leakage is detected or predefined tolerance limit is exceeded.

The four types of fuel can be pumped through the single pipeline, but at different intervals.

Apart from the pumping and receiving stations in Chennai and Devanagondi, one more pumping station will be built at Chittoor in Andhra Pradesh.

A tapping point is likely to be provided at Chittoor too to cater to the fuel requirements of this region, including Tirupati-Tirumala.

The officials said the pipeline would offer several advantages to IOCL.

The cost of transportation would be lower at least by 30 per cent than that of conventional modes of transport. Moreover, transferring fuel through pipeline was safe compared to transportation by rail or road.

Besides these benefits, there would be no room for pilferage of fuel en route.

Transportation of fuel by rail and road was prone to pilferage and it was difficult to continuously monitor the movement of tankers, they added.

Apart from catering to the fuel requirements of Bangalore Urban and Rural, Tumkur, Kolar, Ramanagara and Chikkaballapur districts, the pipeline would enable IOCL to cater to the requirements of other parts of the State too (except the coastal and adjoining belts which were catered to by Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd.), the senior official said.

IOCL has commissioned the Chennai-Tiruchi-Madurai pipeline to transfer petrol, kerosene and diesel.

During 2007-08, this pipeline transferred a record 1.3 million tonnes of fuel, the official said.

Another pipeline pumps aviation turbine fuel from the Manali refinery in Chennai to the Meenambakkam Airport.

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