The Oil Ministry plans to amend the Petroleum and Natural Gas Regulatory Board (PNGRB) Act to bring oil companies’ captive or dedicated’ pipelines under the regulator's jurisdiction.

The move aims to improve monitoring, enhance safety compliance, and potentially convert these pipelines into common carriers, thereby enabling third-party access and promoting fair competition in the sector.

Companies will be required to register their pipelines with PNGRB but will not need to seek fresh authorisation for existing infrastructure. The law already allows PNGRB to declare a dedicated pipeline as a common or contract carrier, a power it intends to exercise more robustly under the proposed changes. In 2022, PNGRB had written to Indian Oil, BPCL, and HPCL, emphasizing the need to regulate their pipelines in the interest of consumers.

Access to pipeline infrastructure is seen as crucial for lowering transportation costs and enabling private players—currently holding about 10 percent market share in fuels—to expand. The proposal, if implemented, could reshape competition and pricing dynamics in India's oil transport sector.