Cairn India starts work on India's first insulated oil pipeline

The construction of country’s first heated and insulated oil pipeline, extending from Barmer in Rajasthan to a coastal location in Jamnagar district of Gujarat has begun.The pipe-laying project formally commenced with a traditional puja at Bevta in Banaskantha district, about 200 km from Ahmedabad in Gujarat, in the presence of Sir Bill Gammell, chairman of Cairn India, which operates the oil fields in Barmer. Once the production starts in 2009, the Barmer district in Rajasthan will have the biggest onshore oil field in the country with Mangala, Bhagyam and Aishwarya fields together producing 1,75,000 barrels of oil per day during peak time. It will boost India’s domestic crude production by approximately 20%.The crude oil from the fields in Barmer will be carried to the refineries in Jamnagar with the help of a 24-inch pipeline via Viramgam. The 600-kilometre pipeline will have a parallel 8-inch gas pipe running most of its length, starting from the Rageshwari gas field in the Rajasthan Block.A minimum of 32 intermediate power feeding/heating stations will be built along the length of the pipeline. These stations will help in maintaining the required temperature within the pipeline. The land for the first 25 heating stations (starting from Barmer) and the Viramgam Terminal has already been acquired. The integrated engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract for the pipeline is being carried out by Larsen & Toubro, while the pipe has come from Jindal Saw Mill at Mundra. In Rajasthan, Cairn India operates block RJ-ON-90/1 under a Production Sharing Contract (PSC) signed on 15 May 1995. The main development area (1,858 square km), which includes Mangala, Aishwarya, Saraswati and Rageshwari, is shared between Cairn India and ONGC, with Cairn India holding 70% and ONGC having exercised their back in right for 30%. A further development area (430 sq km), including the Bhagyam and Shakti fields, is also shared between Cairn India and ONGC in the same proportion.The ministry of petroleum and natural gas on April 30, 2008, had agreed to shift the delivery point of crude oil extracted from Barmer to Salaya at the Gujarat coast.India currently imports approximately 2,000,000 barrels of oil per day (bopd). It produces approximately 7,00,000 bopd on its own of which approximately 50,000 bopd come from the Cairn India-operated Ravva field on the eastern coast of the country.