
Motivated by environmental and health concerns around burning biomass for domestic energy consumption, New Delhi is expanding its natural gas infrastructure.
India is getting ready to update and expand its gas infrastructure in a big way. Speaking at ASSOCHAM Foundation Day Week 2020, Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said, "We are ushering a gas-based economy by increasing the share of natural gas in India′s primary energy mix from 6.2 per cent to 15 per cent by year 2030. On the investments front, we have envisaged a spend of USD 60 billion in creating gas infrastructure till 2024, including for pipelines, LNG (Liquefied Natural Gas) terminals and CGD (City Gas Distribution) networks."
Have you read
India Natural Gas Exchange - one small step or a giant leap
LNG and the new Indian energy mix
How India's oil sector pulled all stops to counter Covid-19 impact
Currently, gas accounts for 6 per cent in the country′s total energy mix, below the global average. While LNG accounted for half of India′s 60.8bn m³ of gas consumption for fiscal year ending 31 March 2019 and imports rose to 33.7bn m³ for the 2020 fiscal year. In recent years, growth in India's LNG imports has been driven by declining domestic natural gas production and growing consumption.
New Delhi has set a target to raise this to 15pc by 2030, with demand expected to be driven by the fertiliser, power, household cooking and steel sectors. The Oil Ministry also plans to set up bio-CNG (compressed natural gas) plants and allied infrastructure at a cost of US$ 1.10 billion to promote the use of clean fuel.