India’s Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas Shri Dharmendra Pradhan recently met with Nepal’s Minister of Commerce and Supplies Shri Sunil Bahadur Thapa in Kathmandu, where the two ministers discussed bilateral cooperation in the petroleum sector.
The two Ministers signed an MoU on a petroleum product pipeline to be built from Raxaul on the India-Nepal border to Amlekhgunj in south-eastern Nepal.
The 41 km pipeline (2 km in India and 39 km in Nepal), which will initially supply petrol, diesel and kerosene, will be constructed by Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) at a cost of approximately $US30 million from its own budget.
It will take IOC 30 months to complete the project after receipt of necessary statutory clearances from the Government of Nepal.
Under the agreement, IOC will also undertake re-engineering of the Amlekhgunj petroleum depot to make it compatible to receive petroleum products by pipeline.
India exports approximately $US1 billion worth of petroleum products annually to Nepal, with the bulk of this volume to be transported through this pipeline, which will be the first transnational petroleum pipeline in South Asia.
Nepal’s Ministry of Commerce and Supplies said the MoU would promote bilateral cooperation in the oil and gas sector and secure long-term supply of petroleum products to Nepal.