The Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) has agreed in principle to provide technical support to the Nepal Oil Corporation (NOC) for building petroleum storage plants in all seven provinces. 

The IOC officials expressed their view at a recent meeting with NOC officials in Mumbai, India. 

“The IOC officials have expressed their readiness to extend any types of support in building oil storage plants if Nepal government agrees,” said NOC Spokesperson Bhanubhakta Khanal, who was a member of the Nepali delegation led by Supplies Ministry’s Joint Secretary Surya Prasad Shrestha. 

The NOC has earmarked Rs117 billion to install new fuel storage plants with a capacity of 530,000 tonnes of petroleum and 70,000 tonnes of cooking gas. 

At the presentation of the budget of this fiscal year, the government had said construction of these storage plants would begin within this fiscal year after completing the land acquisition process and preparing detailed project proposals. 

The NOC has recently invited bids from interest parties to acquire land in Jhapa, Sarlahi, Mahottari, Chitwan, Rupandehi, Dhangadhi and Dhading districts.  

During the bilateral meeting, the IOC has also asked the government to provide the land for the proposed Amlekhgunj-Raxaul cross-border petroleum pipeline soon. “The IOC is committed to initiating process to procure the pipes and other logistics necessary for the project soon after we provide the land,” Khanal said.

The IOC officials have asked the NOC for details of the pipeline alignment which has been set at a distance of 13 metres from the side of the Amlekhgunj-Pathlaiya highway. The IOC has sought the land and pipe alignment to finalise the detailed engineering survey report. 

According to the NOC, the Indian fuel supplier has also agreed in principle to give Nepal access to import cooking gas from Muzaffarpur, India where the latter is set 

to expand the gas pipeline system soon. 

At present, the NOC has been taking delivery of cooking gas at IOC depots in Barauni, Paradeep, Haldiya and Karnal. “Due to its proximity to Nepal, importing cooking gas from Muzaffarpur will minimise the shipping costs significantly,” Khanal said.