Guwahati, Feb 10 (IANS): Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said on Tuesday that his ministry has proposed investment of Rs.130,000 crore in 15 years to ramp up hydrocarbon production in northeast India.

"Every year an amount of Rs.10,000 crore will be invested. Around Rs.80,000 crore will be required for upstream activities, Rs.20,000 crore for midstream and Rs.30,000 crore for downstream," Pradhan said while releasing the the Hydrocarbon Vision 2030 for North East Region.

He stressed upon a paradigm shift in production and utilization of hydrocarbons to catalyze growth in the region and to improve standard of living for the people, generate opportunities for the youth and create a sustainable energy secure future.

"To achieve the Vision, it would call for collaborative efforts of central and state governments with the determination to bring the developmental shift the people of northeast deserve. This will be a concrete step towards realizing our prime minister's vision to develop the North East India in a mission mode," he said.

The petroleum and natural gas ministry has consciously and constantly focused efforts towards making hydrocarbons a tool to enable social and economic development. One such initiative has been the Hydrocarbon Vision 2030 for North East Region, which has been a focused and consultative exercise to develop a common and shared aspiration for benefiting people of the region. It not only includes the ambition for the region but also an actionable roadmap.

"The refining capacity of refineries will be increased from 7 mtpa (metric tones per annum) to 16 MTPA. Every year we will invest Rs.10,000 crore... mostly this investment will be made in Assam. These projects will be funded by the own resources of the hydrocarbon companies and in couple of projects government will assist the same with viability gap funding," said Pradhan.

The minister further said that around 7,000 KM of pipeline will be added in the region. "The region presently has pipeline network of 3,263 km. Work for state-run oil refiner-marketer Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd's Assam based refinery, Numaligarh Refinery Limited's (NRL) ambitious bio-refinery project will start this year," he added.

He said that the objectives of the plan are to leverage the region's hydrocarbon potential, enhance access to clean fuels, improve availability of petroleum products, facilitate economic development and to link common people to the economic activities in this sector.