RIL KG gas pipeline to come alive soon

East-West pipeline is the longest in India.

The pipeline to evacuate gas from Reliance Industries (RIL) block in the Krishna-Godavari (KG) basin "� the so called East-West pipeline linking Kakinada in Andhra Pradesh to Bharuch in Gujarat "� is set to be commissioned in the next three months.

The company has set second week of May as an internal deadline for commissioning the 1,440-km pipeline, said senior company executives.

"We are close to finishing the civil and mechanical work for the entire pipeline and will soon start dry runs to make it ready for gas transportation," said an executive.

The 48-inch diameter East-West Pipeline is the longest in the country and covers Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Maharashtra and Gujarat.

Officials said that the pipeline would be tested in three phases "� first to start from Bharuch in Gujarat to a section in Maharashtra and then from Maharashtra to Karnataka and in the last leg, up to Kakinada where the pipeline begins.

More than 1,500 workers, including skilled workers from China were working to lay the pipeline, mooted in 2005 soon after the discovery of the largest gas discovery in the world at KG basin.

A company spokesperson declined to comment.

Earlier, reports said RIL would delay work on the pipeline to synchronise with completion of its new refinery at Jamnagar and availability of gas from the KG basin.

Sources said the company was hopeful of starting gas production in the second half of this year and the refinery project was nearing completion ahead of initial schedule of 2008 end.

"It will take six to eight months for fully commissioning the refinery since it is the largest refinery in the world and includes about 30-40 different units at a single location," said another executive.

RIL has tied up with the Gujarat State Petronet (GSPL) to transport gas from Bhadbhut in Bharuch to RIL's refinery and petrochemical complex in Jamnagar. After receiving gas from RIL, GSPL will transport the same using its existing pipeline between Bharuch and Rajkot and through new pipelines laid up to Jamnagar.

RIL is also setting up two advanced master control centres at its Nocil facility in Mumbai and at Kakinada to monitor and control the flow of gas through the pipeline using the supervisory control and data acquisition system (SCADA), an optical fibre cable network along the pipeline.

RIL is also planning another pipeline, in the next phase, from Kakinada to Chennai, and from there to Bangalore and Mangalore.

The East-West project is being implemented by Reliance Gas Transportation Infrastructure (RGTIL), a Mukesh Ambani company.

The pipeline had to cross the Krishna river near Kakinada and this was one of the most important challenges in implementing the project.

Similarly, RIL had to get a Supreme Court clearance to lay the pipeline through a bird sanctuary in Maharashtra, said sources.