India is one of the world’s largest consumers of oil and natural gas, which makes it necessary to have an effective pipeline network within the country. This is because pipelines are one of the most efficient modes of transportation between refineries and urban regions for oil and natural gas products. Although they are capital intensive to build up, pipelines have a set of intrinsic advantages over other modes. Apart from being environment-friendly, they are also less expensive to maintain. Pipelines are also one of the most reliable modes of transportation, and cause minimum loss of materials in transit. Pipelines for natural gas transportation are usually much less expensive to build and maintain than those for crude oil transportation. In India, a number of companies such as Gas Authority of India Ltd (GAIL), ONGC, Reliance Industries, BPCL and HPCL own and operate pipelines traversing the length and breadth of the country. Apart from these, a number of international pipeline projects are in different stages of planning and development such as the Bangladesh-India pipeline, Iran-Pakistan-India pipeline and the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India pipeline. With the demand for oil and gas increasing rapidly in recent years, more investment and expansion of current capacity is urgently needed to improve the country’s pipeline network. Hide this