NRL, IWAI sign MoU for transportation of petroleum products to Bangladesh

Numaligarh Refinery Ltd (NRL) and Inland Waterways Authority of India on Thursday signed an MoU for the transportation of petroleum products of the Assam-based company to Bangladesh.

The collaboration was made for supplying such products through IWAI’s upgraded jetty at Jogighopa in Assam, an official said.

NRL envisages to export 200 thousand metric tonne of products per annum to Bangladesh through Jogighopa jetty, after the commissioning of its expanded refinery and petrochemicals plant.

The MoU was signed here by NRL’s chief general manager (Marketing) Subrata Das and IWAI director A Selva Kumar in the presence of Union Shipping Minister Sarbananda Sonowal and Union Minister of State for Petroleum and Natural Gas Rameshwar Teli.

Speaking on the occasion, Sonowal said that collaboration between NRL and IWAI is expected to provide a boost to the Centre’s ‘Gati Shakti’ initiative and ‘Act East Policy’.

Following the inauguration of the ‘India-Bangladesh Friendship Pipeline (IBFPL)’ and its commissioning earlier this year, the neighbouring country is keen to collaborate in transporting fuel to north Bangladesh, particularly in winter, through waterways, the NRL official said.

The petroleum company is currently implementing a project for the expansion of its refinery from three to nine MMTPA at an approved cost of more than Rs 28,000 crore, which is scheduled for completion by early 2025.

NRL and IWAI had, in 2021, signed an MoU for transporting cargo through maritime routes utilising the national waterways. The first such consignment was received at a jetty near Numaligarh by Sonowal in June this year.