NRL executes one of the longest HDD for its crude oil pipeline project in Assam

New Delhi: Numaligarh Refinery Limited (NRL) is executing its mega project of laying of a cross-country pipeline of 1,635 km from Paradip Port in Odisha to Numaligarh along with the expansion of its refinery from 3.0 MMTPA to 9.0 MMTPA, as part of ‘Numaligarh Refinery Expansion Project (NREP)’. The NREP Project is the single largest investment in Northeast India as part of Govt of India’s ‘Hydrocarbon Vision 2030 for North East India’. The pipeline passes through 5 States traversing numerous en-route crossings including all major rivers of East India, namely Ganga, Jia Bharali, Subansiri, Brahmaputra through a technique called Horizontal Directional Drilling (HDD) with intersection.

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Subansiri River, which connects Lakhimpur in the North and Majuli in the South side, is one of the of the most challenging HDD sites due to its complex 3510-meter-long profile length for a 26-inch diameter pipe. The remote site made it more challenging due to the non-accessibility of the area which remains flooded most of the year leaving a working window of 4-5 months during November to March. The executing agency had to construct a temporary bridge over Lohit River en-route for movement of the heavy equipment and project accessories. Two giant rigs of capacity 500 MT were positioned on both side of the river and are used for drillings, reaming and pulling activities.

The pulling of the 26-inch dia pipe started on 12th Feb 2024 and continued non-stop for around 60 hours till entire 3.51 km long pipe string was pulled through, at the mid night of 14th of February 2024 and marked the successful completion of one of the largest HDD globally as on date, for a 26 inch diameter pipe size. The EPCM Consultant of the project is Engineers India Limited (EIL) and the executing agency is Corrtech International Pvt Ltd (CIPL). The Project Pipeline Head Mr Pranab Jyoti Sarma, Section in Charge S K Hussain, EIL Construction Site In-Charge S K Bhuyan along with entire team were relentlessly involved under guidance of CGM (Project) I/c G K Borah and Managing Director B J Phukan in entire activities ensuring success of this critical job.

With completion of this HDD, NRL is now focussing to complete another two biggest HDDs in forthcoming 2-3 months in Ganga and Brahmaputra River, thereby, completing all major HDD crossings of its 1635km long Paradip Numaligarh Crude Oil Pipeline (PNCPL). NRL plans to accomplish construction and commissioning of the PNCPL Project by Mid-2025.

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