90% work on White Oil Pipeline’s dualization completed; commissioning from Sept 1

ISLAMABAD, The Petroleum Division has ‘technically’ completed 90 per cent work on dualization of the White Oil Pipeline (WOP), from Karachi to Mehmood Kot section, for smooth supply of petrol and diesel to Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs) and reducing reliance on the traditional mode of transportation through tankers.

“Currently 90% project has been technically completed, while testing and commissioning is planned from September 2021,” a senior official privy to petroleum sector developments told APP.

The pipeline, he said, that was previously used to move only diesel from Karachi to Mehmood Kot would be transporting both diesel and petrol in batches after the dualized line was made operational.

Under the $134 million project, the official said the pipeline capacity had also been increased from 8 MTPA (Million Ton per Annum) to 12 MTPA for transportation of multiproduct (High-Speed Diesel and Premier Motor Gasoline-Petrol).

He said the same progress had also been achieved on the Mehmood Kot-Faisalabad-Machike section of the pipeline project, being executed at a cost of $60 million. It too would be operational from September 1, he added.

He said the WOP would be expanded to Peshawar for which a contract had been awarded to the Frontier Works Organization under an Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority-awarded licence. At this section, around 430-kilometre oil pipeline would be laid from Machike to Tarujaba, connecting Lahore and Peshawar.

This portion of the pipeline consists of three sub-sections, including Machike-Chak Pirana (135-km), Chak Pirana-Rawat (117-km) and Rawat-Tarujabba (175-km), which would be capable of transporting dual oil products to different depots.

With completion of the project, known as the Machike-Tarujabba oil pipeline, the official said all imported diesel and fuel besides local production in the south of the country, would move through the pipeline from Karachi to Peshawar instead of oil lorries.

However, he said, onward distribution from OMC’s oil depots to petrol pumps would remain intact through tankers. “It will greatly help reduce traffic congestion, environmental pollution and transportation cost.”

The overall dualization of the WOP would help ensure a smooth supply chain of petroleum products from Karachi to Peshawar.

The pipeline had been conceived after frequent incidents of oil tankers’ overturn, especially the Ahmedpur Sharqiya tragedy in 2017, to ensure a safe, efficient and reliable mode of supplying petroleum products across the country.