Bharat Petroleum Corp's Numaligarh Refinery in Assam has sought concessions from the Centre and state government for its proposed refinery expansion project.

Numaligarh Refinery plans to invest Rs. 20,000 crore to increase refining capacity threefold to 9 million metric tonnes per annum.

S Varadarajan, BPCL's chairman and managing director who is also Numaligarh Refinery's chairman, said the boards of both companies have cleared the expansion project, which includes a 6 MMTPA crude oil pipeline for transporting imported crude from the east coast.

The company is also making initiatives to enter markets of neighbouring countries. Numaligarh Refinery is pursuing plans to lay a 135-km petroleum product pipeline from its terminal at Siliguri in West Bengal to Parbatipur in Bangladesh.

Feasibility study and field survey for the pipeline have been completed, he said. A memorandum of understanding has been signed between the company and Bangladesh Petroleum Corp to form a joint venture for implementing the pipeline project.

Numaligarh Refinery Managing Director P. Padmanabhan said the chairman of Bangladesh Petroleum may visit Assam next month.