By Bizodisha Bureau, Bhubaneswar, April 16, 2017 : A memorandum of understanding was on Saturday signed for the capacity expansion of the Numaligarh Refinery in Assam.

The MoU was signed among Paradip Port Trust, Indian Oil Corporation Limited and Numaligarh Refinery Limited in the presence of Union inister Nitin Gadkari, Union Minister of State Dharmendra Pradhan, Assam finance minister H B Sarma and Assam commerce and industry minister C M Patowary.

Under the expansion project, a 28-inch diamter and 1400-kilometre-long crude oil pipeline of 1 MMTPA capacity will be laid for transporting 6 mmtpa of imported crude oil from Paradip Port in Odisha to Numaligarh in Assam.

The MoU provides for utilisation of IOCL’s spare capacity of existing SPMs (single point mooring) at Paradip for installation of crude storage tanks, pump house and a township.

“This will lead to an estimated investment of Rs 1,000 crore in Odisha to generate direct and indistrict employment for many people,” Nitin Gadkari, Union Minister for Road Transport, Highways and Shipping, said.

Union Minister of State for Petroleum and Natural Gas Dharmendra Pradhan said that the Centre was planning to expand the capacity of the port at Paradip and set up a crude oil terminal to be used to meet oil requirement of east Asia.