Pipeline transport

Also called: Pipelines · Topic: Transport and Communication in India · NCERT: Class 10, Ch 7 "Lifelines of National Economy"; Class 12, Ch 7 "Transport and Communication"; Class 12, Ch 7 "Transport and Communication"

Meaning

Pipeline transport means moving liquids, gases, or solids mixed with water (slurry) through a long, closed pipe. The pipe lies on the ground or is buried under it, and pumps along the line keep the material moving. It is the most convenient way to move liquids and gases over long distances. In India, pipelines link oil and gas fields, ports, refineries, fertiliser plants and markets. They also decide where refineries and industries can be built.

Explanation

How it works

• Basic working
• A long closed pipe is laid from a source (an oilfield, gas field, port or mine) to a user (a refinery, plant, port or market).
• Pumping stations along the route push the material forward.

• It flows day and night with very few workers.

• What it carries

• Crude oil, petroleum products (diesel, petrol, LPG), natural gas and water.

• Slurry pipelines carry solids

• Slurry is a solid, such as crushed ore, ground fine and mixed with water so that it flows like a liquid.
• Process: ore is mined in the hills → it is crushed and mixed with water → the slurry flows downhill through the pipe to the coast → at the port the water is removed and the ore is loaded onto ships.
• Example: Kudremukh iron ore (Western Ghats, Karnataka) was sent as slurry to Mangaluru port.

Merits and demerits

Merits	Demerits
Low running cost. Once the line is laid, only the pumps need energy.	High initial cost for laying the line, building pumping stations and buying land rights
No trans-shipment losses or delays. Trans-shipment means unloading goods from one carrier and loading them onto another, such as from a train to a truck. A pipeline needs none of this.	No flexibility. It serves only the fixed points it joins, and its capacity cannot be raised easily.
Not affected by weather. It works in floods, fog and snow.	Leaks and theft. Leaks are hard to find on a long buried line, and thieves can drill into the pipe to steal oil.
Takes no road or rail space and needs few workers	Carries mostly fluids. Solids must first be made into slurry.

How pipelines changed where industry is located

• Before pipelines: crude oil is bulky and costly to move by rail or road. So refineries had to be near oilfields or ports.
• After pipelines: crude oil could reach places far inland at low cost.
• This made inland refineries possible at Barauni (Bihar), Mathura (Uttar Pradesh) and Panipat (Haryana).

• Gas pipelines made gas-based fertiliser plants possible far from the gas fields. Natural gas is the raw material for ammonia and urea.

• Result: refineries could be built near the big markets of the north Indian plains, and industry spread into the interior.

Key organisations

• Oil India Limited (OIL) was set up in 1959. It explores for, produces and transports crude oil and natural gas, and its oilfields are in upper Assam.
• GAIL (India) Limited was set up in 1984 as Gas Authority of India Ltd. It is a public sector company that transports, processes and sells natural gas.
• Indian Oil Corporation built the Mundra–Panipat crude line and the Motihari–Amlekhganj line to Nepal.

Where it occurs

Naharkatiya–Barauni line: Asia's first cross-country crude oil pipeline. A cross-country pipeline is a long line that crosses many districts and states, not a short line inside one oilfield or plant.

• It was built by Oil India Limited.
• It runs from Naharkatiya (Dibrugarh district, upper Assam) to Barauni (Begusarai district, Bihar). Length: 1,157 km.
• It was extended to Kanpur (Uttar Pradesh) in 1966.

The three NCERT pipeline networks:

Network	Route	Branches	Carries
1. Eastern (runs east → west)	Upper Assam oilfields → Guwahati → Barauni → Prayagraj → Kanpur	Barauni–Haldia (port on the Hooghly, West Bengal) via Rajbandh; Rajbandh–Maurigram (near Howrah); Guwahati–Siliguri	Crude oil and petroleum products
2. Western (runs south-west → north)	Salaya (Gulf of Kachchh, Gujarat) → Viramgam → Mathura → Delhi → Sonipat → Jalandhar (Punjab)	Koyali (near Vadodara, Gujarat) and Chaksu (near Jaipur, Rajasthan)	Crude oil and products
3. Gas	Hazira–Vijaipur–Jagdishpur (HVJ)	Fertiliser, power and industrial plants along the route	Natural gas

HVJ gas pipeline (built by GAIL):

• It is about 1,700 km long and was India's first long-distance gas trunk line across states.
• Its gas comes from Mumbai High (an offshore field in the Arabian Sea, west of Mumbai) and the Bassein offshore field.
• It starts at Hazira (Surat, Gujarat), where the offshore gas comes ashore. It runs through Vijaipur (Guna district, Madhya Pradesh) to Jagdishpur (Uttar Pradesh).
• States crossed: Gujarat → Madhya Pradesh → Uttar Pradesh.
• Gas pipelines have grown from 1,700 km to 18,500 km, and the grid is planned to pass 34,000 km. The aim is a National Gas Grid: one connected network that brings gas to every region.

Other lines:

• Mundra (Gujarat)–Panipat (Haryana) crude line of Indian Oil. It feeds the Panipat refinery from the Gujarat coast.
• Kudremukh–Mangaluru iron ore slurry line in Karnataka.

Cross-border pipelines:

• Motihari–Amlekhganj (India → Nepal)
• It runs from Motihari (East Champaran, Bihar) to Amlekhganj (Nepal). Length: 69 km. Capacity: 2 MMTPA (million metric tonnes per year) [2].
• It is South Asia's first cross-border petroleum products pipeline. The Prime Ministers of India and Nepal opened it together by video link on 10 September 2019 [2].

• It was built by Indian Oil Corporation. IOC and Nepal Oil Corporation signed a 15-year contract: 5 years at first, which can be extended twice by 5 years each [2].

• India–Bangladesh Friendship Pipeline (IBFP)

• It runs from the Siliguri Marketing Terminal of Numaligarh Refinery Ltd (West Bengal) to the Parbatipur depot of Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation. Length: about 130 km. It carries High-Speed Diesel (HSD), and its capacity is 1 MMTPA [3].
• Its foundation stone was laid in September 2018, and both Prime Ministers opened it online in March 2023 [3][4].
• It cost about ₹377 crore. India paid about ₹285 crore for the Bangladesh part as a grant. It first supplies diesel to seven districts of northern Bangladesh [3].

Don't confuse with

• Running cost vs initial cost: pipelines have a low running cost but a high initial cost. Saying "pipelines have a low initial cost" is wrong.
• Crude oil pipeline vs product pipeline: Naharkatiya–Barauni and Salaya–Jalandhar carry crude oil to refineries. Motihari–Amlekhganj and the India–Bangladesh Friendship Pipeline carry finished fuel (petroleum products, diesel) out of Indian terminals.
• Cross-country vs cross-border pipeline: a cross-country line crosses many states inside one country (Naharkatiya–Barauni, the first in Asia). A cross-border line crosses into another country (Motihari–Amlekhganj, the first in South Asia).
• Slurry pipeline vs oil or gas pipeline: a slurry line carries solids mixed with water, such as Kudremukh iron ore. It usually flows downhill to a port, while oil and gas lines need pumps all along the route.

Prelims Hooks

• Asia's first cross-country crude oil pipeline: Naharkatiya (Assam) to Barauni (Bihar), 1,157 km, built by Oil India Limited (1959). It was extended to Kanpur in 1966.
• HVJ states: Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh. Maharashtra is NOT crossed, even though Mumbai High lies off its coast. The gas comes from Mumbai High and Bassein, and the builder is GAIL (1984).
• Western network order: Salaya → Viramgam → Mathura → Delhi → Sonipat → Jalandhar. Its branches go to Koyali (near Vadodara) and Chaksu (near Jaipur).
• Eastern network branches: Barauni–Haldia (via Rajbandh), Rajbandh–Maurigram and Guwahati–Siliguri.
• Inland refineries made possible by pipelines: Barauni, Mathura and Panipat. Slurry example: Kudremukh iron ore to Mangaluru port.
• Cross-border lines: Motihari–Amlekhganj (India–Nepal, 2019, 69 km, 2 MMTPA) is South Asia's first cross-border petroleum products pipeline [2]. The India–Bangladesh Friendship Pipeline (Siliguri to Parbatipur, March 2023) carries diesel, not crude oil or gas [3].

Mains Points

• Pipelines change where industry is located (GS-I).
• Cheap inland transport of crude oil and gas freed refineries and fertiliser plants from coasts and oilfields.
• Inland refineries came up at Barauni, Mathura and Panipat, and fertiliser plants grew along the HVJ route.

• Industry spread into the Ganga plains and central India, which helped balance regional development.

• Infrastructure and energy security (GS-III).

• Pipelines cut trans-shipment losses, road traffic and diesel burnt by tankers, and they work in all weather.
• Growing the gas grid from 1,700 km to 18,500 km, and towards 34,000 km, supports a gas-based economy and a National Gas Grid. The older networks were concentrated in the Gujarat–Punjab belt and the Assam–Ganga belt, so the east, the interior north-east and the south were covered later.

• Problems to fix: high capital cost, fixed routes, and leaks and theft. These need monitoring systems, open (common carrier) access and a regulator.

• Energy diplomacy.

• The Motihari–Amlekhganj (2019) and India–Bangladesh Friendship (2023) pipelines replace road tankers. They give landlocked Nepal and northern Bangladesh a steady, cheaper and cleaner fuel supply [2][3].
• They also tie neighbours to Indian refineries under the Neighbourhood First policy.

Related concepts

• Naharkatiya-Barauni pipeline
• GAIL (India) Limited
• Hazira-Vijaipur-Jagdishpur pipeline

Read more

• Pipelines