The Business Bytes
TBB BUREAU
NEW DELHI, JUNE 4, 2022
Vedanta’s mining unit Cairn Oil & Gas plans to convert a pipeline that ships crude oil from its prolific Rajasthan oilfields to Gujarat to solar power by 2025.
In a bid to turn Mangala pipeline to solar, the company will install solar rooftop PVs in all the 36 Above Ground Installations (AGIs) along the pipeline. The pipeline is the world’s longest continuously heated and insulated pipeline that runs from oilfields of Rajasthan to refineries in Gujarat — traversing 705 km, Cairn Oil & Gas said in a statement.
Discussing the company’s initiative to adopt solar power for its celebrated pipeline, Prachur Sah, Deputy CEO Cairn Oil & Gas, said, “The Mangala pipeline has been a great asset for Cairn Oil & Gas. Its unique technology has allowed the transportation of waxy crude from our Rajasthan fields to refineries in Gujarat. Mangala pipeline has been a testimony to our industry leading practices and now, its conversion to solar power is pioneering yet another first for the oil and gas industry. We look forward to several more years of successful production from Barmer and the Mangala pipeline will the backbone of sustaining our ambitions.”
In line with the country’s ambitious goals, Cairn Oil & Gas is today pioneering ESG leadership in the sector and has committed to achieve net-zero carbon by 2050. For this, the company has created a robust ESG roadmap with a slew of diverse initiatives – the first in the country’s oil and gas sector to take this step. In fact, Cairn decision to convert its much-celebrated Mangala pipeline into a fully solar-operated pipeline flows from this ESG vision.
Discovered in 2004, Cairn’s Mangala oil field in Rajasthan was the largest global discovery of the year and India’s largest onshore discovery in 25 years. The field is also home to the Mangala pipeline – the world’s longest continuously heated and insulated pipeline that runs from the fields of Rajasthan to refineries in Gujarat – covering 705 kilometers. The pipeline is a technology marvel that was built to make the transportation of waxy crude produced from the prolific Mangala pipeline a thriving reality.
Now, this celebrated pipeline is making the solar switch. In line with its decarbonization commitment to reduce carbon footprint, Cairn is cutting dependence on more polluting sources of power and setting an important precedent in the industry. The midstream team at Mangala has initiated project to install rooftop solar photovoltaic on the available area of Above Ground Installations (AGIs) in a phase wise manner with the target of installing complete solar rooftop in all 36 AGIs by 2025. The goal is to shift the complete AGI load to solar energy and make our world’s longest continuously heated and insulated hydrocarbon carrying pipeline a greener and more efficient resource. Before this, the power for AGI operations in the midstream location in Gujarat was fully imported from the state electricity board and its predominantly coal-based power which comes with a much higher GHG emission intensity.
So far, Cairn has installed total 13 AGIs with solar rooftop capacity of 15KW that is cumulatively reducing approximately 270 tons of CO2e/annum. Further, plan is to install solar on 10 AGIs each year to complete the project for FY 2025 and achieve total GHG reduction of 770 tons of CO2e/annum.
As countries across the globe and India itself races to adopt cleaner sources of energy to control emissions and climate change, Cairn is leading the way in the oil and gas industry by combining the best of both fossil and non-fossil energy sources. The company remains committed to the country’s net-zero targets and its ESG vision lays the roadmap towards that end.
