India: Ratnamani gets highest allocation for supply of pipes in NRL refinery project – Sources

Numaligarh Refinery Limited, (NRL), a central government PSU and a subsidiary of Oil India Limited, operates a 3 mtpa refinery at Numaligarh in the district of Golaghat, Assam since the year 2000. NRL is now executing a major expansion project of capacity augmentation from the present 3 mtpa to 9 mtpa.

NRL proposed to construct a new LPG and propylene facility at Dabidubi, district-Golaghat, to decongest LPG, propylene and POL products in the existing set-up at the refinery, by transporting via pipeline.

Transportation of the above products from the refinery shall be through underground pipelines. Under this project, NRL proposed to design and install an 8-inch LPG API grade 5L, X-42 PSL2 pipeline which will cover around 13.19 kms, from Numaligarh refinery to the Dabidubi plant. The Government of India (GoI) conducted a reverse auction to source suppliers for around 92,000 tonnes of API grade pipeline for the project.

Update on reverse auction:

• Several companies participated in the tender floated by GoI. SteelMint understands from credible sources that following four companies have come out as L1 bidders for this tender:
• Ratnamani Metals & Tubes Ltd, a multi-product company in India, manufacturing tubes and pipes in stainless steel/exotic material and also carbon steel pipes, in a wide size range. The L1 bidder is for a wide spectrum of applications and will supply around 47,000 tonnes of line pipes of 15.9 mm thickness.
• TopWorth, a new entrant in the API market, has also bagged the tender to supply around 42,000 tonnes of 9.2mm line pipes for the project.
• AM/NS India, the integrated flat carbon steel manufacturer, is also amongst the L1 bidders which will supply around 1,500 tonnes of line pipes of 15.9 mm thickness.
• Welspun Corp Ltd, the second largest manufacturer of large diameter pipes in the world, is the L1 bidder in the 12.8mm thickness category. It will be supplying about 2,000 t of line pipes.

NRL’s refinery expansion will increase overall crude oil processing capacity and is scheduled to be completed by 2024. The augmentation is part of GoI’s Hydrocarbon Vision 2030 and will help meet growing demand of petroleum products in north-eastern India.