The announcement was made on July 21, that Indian Oil Corporation Limited (IOCL), ONGC, GAIL, Oil India Limited and Numaligarh Refinery Limited (NRL) have come together to sign a Joint Venture (JV) agreement for the execution of the North-East Natural Gas Pipeline Grid Project.
The Joint Venture between the five companies was on the agreement to ‘develop, build, operate and maintain’ the new Natural Gas Pipeline Project which has plans to connect the Indian City Guwahati to other major North-Eastern cities, and major load centres such as Numaligarh Refinery. This agreement will also include the integration of the North-East Natural Gas Pipeline with other gas producing fields in India (where available).
The Gas Grid Project will connect all 8 North Eastern States to the National Gas Grid through Barauni-Guwahati Gas Pipeline being laid by GAIL. From Guwahati, the pipeline will extend to Numaligarh, Dimapur, Kohima and Imphal in one direction; Shillong, Silchar, Aizawl and Agartala in another direction and to Itanagar in the third direction as well.
The estimated length of the proposed North-East Natural Gas Pipeline Grid Project spans roughly 1500 kilometres, estimating a total converted project cost of approximately AU $1.51billion. The predicted time schedule for commissioning this pipeline grid project will take up to four years, including one year of pre-project preliminary activities.
The Joint Venture Agreement was signed by Shri H K Singh, ED (Project) from IOCL, Shri R Kaul, GM-Chief-BD & JV from ONGC, Shri D M Rao, CGM (PD) from GAIL, Shri B K Mishra, CGM(PL) from OIL and Shri A K Bhattacharya, Sr.CGM (Corporate Affairs) from NRL in presence of other senior executive from these companies.
Lastly, the announcement explained that the ‘Joint Venture Company’ (currently unnamed) will have equal equity contribution from all of the JV partners for the duration of this project’s development. More information on this announcement can be found here.