Barauni (Bihar), Jan 19 (IANS) The capacity of the 50-year old Barauni refinery will be raised to 9 million tonnes per annum (MTPA), Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said Sunday.

"The refining capacity of the Barauni refinery will be raised to 9 MTPA from 6 MTPA at present," he said, addressing the golden jubilee celebrations of this Indian Oil Corp refinery.

Pradhan also announced investment worth Rs.25,000 crore on various projects in the oil and gas sector over the next five to six years in Bihar.

On the central government's decision to increase cooking gas (LPG) connections in Bihar from the existing 37 percent to the national average of around 60 percent, he said: "The work would start this year itself. All the households in Patna would be covered."

He announced the laying of a LPG pipeline from Durgapur in West Bengal through Barauni-Patna-Muzaffarpur in Bihar and said that more LPG bottling plants have been proposed in Bihar to meet growing demand for cooking gas in the region.

Of another project, he said an oil pipeline would be laid from Motihari to Nepal for supplying oil and gas.

"Till now tankers used to supply oil to Nepal, but our Prime Minister Narendra Modi, during his visit to the neighbouring country last year, had promised to lay a pipeline for the same and it will be done soon," he said.