India, Nepal To Hold Talks On Aviation Fuel Supply Through Pipeline | World News

India-Nepal Ties: Officials from the two countries are scheduled to meet in New Delhi next week and will hold talks with India on supplying aviation fuel to Nepal through a cross-border oil pipeline, a senior Nepali official said on Wednesday.

Nepal started transporting diesel via pipeline for the first time in September 2019, following the completion of the Motihari Amlekhgunj cross-border oil pipeline. The country also began importing oil and kerosene via pipeline in early 2025.

The fifth meeting of the Nepal-India Oil and Gas Joint Working Group is scheduled to be held on December 8. At the meeting, Nepal plans to discuss the supply of Aviation Turbine Fuel (ATF), used in aircraft, through cross-border pipeline.

At the Cabinet meeting held on Monday, it was approved to send the delegation to New Delhi for talks. Shivaram Pokharel, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Supplies, who led the Nepali delegation, said, “We will propose supply of ATF to Nepal through the pipeline after the construction of the ongoing oil pipeline from Amlekhgunj to Lothar in Chitwan district is completed.”

While the project is being implemented with the help of India, Nepal Oil Corporation (NOC) plans to develop an ATF depot at Lothar with its own resources. Currently, NOC is implementing the pipeline expansion project with the help of India.

In this phase, which started in early August this year, the Motihari-Amlekhgunj pipeline is being extended to Lothar. Pokharel said that once the extended pipeline and ATF depot are completed, Nepal aims to transport ATF to Lothar via pipeline.

“We will discuss this issue in the next meeting,” he said. He added that an ATF depot was planned for Lothar due to insufficient space in the Amlekhgunj depot in Bara district. According to him, the same pipeline can be used for transportation of diesel, gasoline, kerosene and ATF.

To prevent adulteration between different petroleum products, a necessary scientific process has been adopted to ensure that one type of fuel does not contaminate the other when supplied sequentially.

During the former Nepalese Prime Minister’s visit to India in May June 2023, the two sides signed a memorandum of understanding on construction of oil supply infrastructure between Siliguri and Jhapa, extension of existing pipeline from Amlekhgunj to Lothar and construction of two green field terminals at Chitwan and Jhapa.

When the cross-border pipeline was completed in 2019, it became the first of its kind in South Asia. Meanwhile, a private company in Nepal started importing Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) from the country about a week ago.

Yogya Holding, a subsidiary of SG Group, which bottling and supplying liquefied petroleum gas, has started importing LNG, the first such gas import, from Indian Oil Corporation.

The two parties signed an agreement on LNG supply earlier this year. In a recent post on social media, Indian Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Hardeep Singh Puri described the first LNG supply to Nepal as a “landmark operation” and added that it reflects India’s unwavering commitment to advancing regional energy security.

He said Indian Oil Corporation’s launch of its first LNG exports to Nepal is an important step in promoting cleaner energy and deepening regional partnership.