1. Fox Petroleum proposestobuild Oman–India
Multi-PurposePipelineproject
March 24, 2015
Fox Petroleum Ltd., oneof India’senergy companies, hasproposed to theGovernment of Indiato
build theOman–IndiaMulti-PurposePipeline(OIMPP) – adeepwater, transnational, natural gas
pipelinesystem that will crosstheArabian Seawith 100% investment from foreign funding.
Thecompany estimatesthat theproject can becompleted within 48 monthsand that it isworth USD
$5.6 billion with a(+/-) 4% variation. A dual-sized, singlepipelinefrom theOman coast near Ra’sAl
Jifan would belinked to Duqm onshoreand from Al Duqm to theIndian coast at Gujarat viaamid-
linerecompression station situated on theQualhat Seamount (Murray ridge).
Ajay Kumar, chairman and managing director of Fox Petroleum, said, “In thelast few years, deepsea
gaspipelinetechnology hasmatured. SinceIndiahasserioussecurity concernswith regard to pipeline
projectsover land, adeepseapipelineisprobably themost promising option. This1,600-kilometer
OIMPPproject intendsto transport 8 trillion cubic feet of natural gasto Indiaover aperiod of 20
years. Thepipelineisplanned to beabout 1,300 kilometerslong in PhaseI, and 300 kilometersmore
to connect Mumbai, laid at adepth of 3,400 metersbelow theseabed. It will connect theMiddleEast
Compression Station near Oman with thereceiving terminal near Gujarat.
Headded that theestimated cost of thisproject is$5–5.6 billion, and that it can beexecuted in about
fiveyears. Fox Petroleum hasarranged all required technical and financial requirementsfor the
project, including funding theproject from itsassociatecompanies.
TheOIMPPisanticipated to bethefirst of many in acorridor of pipelinesthat will form thefinal leg
of amajor energy supply routelinking thetwo countriescrossing thesea; importing LNG isacostly
process, but unavoidablebecausethesourcesof gasarefar away. Thiscost can beavoided if gasis
imported through pipelinesand then transported acrossthecountry through existing and future-
planned pipelinesin India. Geographically, theOman–IndiaPipelineiscomparatively morefeasible
becauseIndiaiscloseto thesourcesof natural gasin theMiddleEast and theunderseadistanceisless
than 1,300 kilometersif connected to Gujarat coast only.
Kumar commented that another reason in favor of thisproject isthelanded cost, which will belesser
by $1.5 to $2 per million BTU ascompared to LNG imports. Furthermore, hesaid, thispipelinecould
belinked to other natural gassourcesin theMiddleEast and even to Turkmenistan and Iran if need
be.
58 4 79 1 141
Page1 of 1
6/1/2015http://www.ogfj.com/articles/2015/03/fox-petroleum-proposes-to-build-oman-india-multi-p...