India to Construct World's Longest LPG Pipeline by June to Reduce Costs

India's state-run refiners will complete the commissioning of the world's longest liquefied petroleum gas pipe by June, marking a key step that is bound to clearly reduce the cost of transport for sale, and will also help prevent fatal accidents on the roads.

The $1.3 billion project would eradicate the need for at least a few hundred trucks carrying liquefied petroleum gas from refineries to bottling plants and which often collide. A petrol tanker recently overturned in Coimbatore and blocked traffic in the southern city. Last December, at least 20 people were killed, 45 were injured, and some 36 vehicles were damaged when an oil tanker collided with an Indian Oil vehicle in the northwestern city of Jaipur.

Together, Indian Oil, Bharat Petroleum Corp., and Hindustan Petroleum Corp, established the IHB that will build the 2,800-kilometer-long pipeline from Kandla on the west coast of India to Gorakhpur in the northern part of the country. The first phase will become operational in March this year and be fully functional around the middle of the same year, Kumar said in his capacity as chairman of the joint venture.

The pipeline network will be capable of transporting LPG up to 8.3 million tons annually, which would amount to about 25% of India's total demand. This will cut freight costs that, with about 70% of bottling plants getting their supply through trucks, is significant for the world's third-largest consumer. India's Petroleum and Natural Gas Regulatory Board has been calling on refiners to build more pipelines to address increasing volumes and thus help avert serious road disasters.

Demand for local use of the fuel, chiefly for home cooking, has explosively increased an eightfold over the course of the last decade to 29.6 million tons in FY 2023-24, which is more than the 47% demand growth for refined oil products combined.