'Northeast to be hydrocarbon hub'

 In a bid to give more steam to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Act East policy, the Centre has decided to turn Northeast India into a major hydrocarbon hub of Southeast Asia.

Assam would be catering to hydrocarbon demands of the immediate neighbour, supplies have already started to Bhutan and Bangladesh, and will soon resume to Myanmar. This new initiative of hydrocarbon diplomacy is aimed at making India a major supplier of hydrocarbon in Southeast Asia, Union Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan told reporters in a press conference in Guwahati on Friday. 

In order to achieve this, the Centre has decided to raise the capacity of the existing four Assam refineries from the existing seven MTPA to 16 MTPA.

 “The government has drawn up a plan to raise the capacity of Assam’s four refineries to 16 MTPA. With more quantity of crude oil from Nigeria and West Africa to be pumped into the state, Assam will become India’s petroleum hub for the entire South East Asian region. We have already started sending petroleum products to Bangladesh and Bhutan,” Pradhan said after he reviewed the petroleum sector development in Assam along with Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal.

Moreover, India has also worked out a deal with Bangladesh, where India can build a terminal at the Chittagong sea port from where crude can be brought to Tripura’s capital Agartala by means of the new trade transit protocol initiated by the two countries, Pradhan informed.

Pradhan also added that the idea of turning Northeast as the hydrocarbon hub is part of his ministry’s ‘Hydrocrabon Vision 2030’ initiative under which New Delhi is investing Rs 1.30 lakh crore in the petroleum sector in the Northeast within 2030, of which a whopping Rs 80,000 crore would be invested in Assam, which has reserves of natural gas, petroleum and coal.

“In the current financial year, we are investing about Rs 6,000 crore in Assam. This will bring a major facelift to the sector in Assam,” Pradhan further added.

The Centre also plans to bring in imported crude to the refineriis in Assam through the Paradip-Haldia-Barauni-Guwahati pipeline, the union minister added.