Union petroleum minister Dharmendra Pradhan on Friday inaugurated Rs 1500 crore hydrocarbon related projects in Assam.
Pradhan said the vision of the Centre is to make the state a trading hub of hydrocarbon and more investment is going to be made in this sector with an aim to increase production and export to Southeast Asian countries under the Act East policy.
The minister inaugurated the Rs 1200 crore upgradation project of crude oil pump station of the existing Naharkatiya –Barauni trunk pipeline of Oil India Limited, according to reports.
Also, inauguration of the Rs 230 crore greenfield railfed Petroleum, Oil and Lubricant (POL) storage depot of IOCL at Digboi was done.
The other projects unveiled by the minister on Friday included augmented LPG bottling plants at Silchar and North Guwahati, the mounded LPG storage at Numaligarh Refinery, Swargadeo Chaulung Siu Ka Pha multi-specialty hospital of ONGC at Sivasagar, ONGC’s GGS Borholla to Jorhat CTF pipeline, ONGC’s effluent treatment cum water injection plant at Sivasagar .
The KD Malviya Oil Museum project was also unveiled in Guwahati. The Rs 104 crore museum will have five galleries, auditorium, 3D theatre, outdoor science park, etc.
Pradhan said that the Centre decided to invest Rs 22594 crore for increasing NRL’s refining capacity from the existing 3 million metric tonnes per annum to 9 million metric tonnes per annum.
ONGC chairman Shashi Shanker said that the oil giant will invest Rs 13000 crore in Assam in the next five years.
The multi-speciality hospital which has almost been completed will have the capacity of housing a large number of patients.