Page 7 - AsiaElec Week 31 2022

AsiaElec GAS GENERATION AsiaElec

Indian government provides

update on push to boost gas

INDIA THE Indian government has provided an update Petroleum and Natural Gas Regulatory Board
on efforts to boost the share of natural gas in the (PNGRB),” said Teli. “The CNG stations and
country’s energy mix. PNG connections are being provided by author-
In a statement, the government said it had set ised entities as per timelines prescribed by
a target of raising the share of gas in the energy PNGRB from time to time,” he added.
mix to 15% by 2030, from 6.3% currently. Sev- According to data from the Indian Ministry
eral initiatives are now underway as the country of Petroleum and Natural Gas, a total of 9.5mn
works to achieve this goal, according to Indian domestic PNG connections and 4,531 CNG
Minister of State for Petroleum and Natural Gas, transport stations had been established by the
Rameswar Teli. government as of May 31, 2022. After comple-
These include efforts to expand the national tion of the 11A CGD round, 295 geographical
gas grid to around 33,500 km from 21,715 km areas (GAs) had been authorised to date, which
currently, while also expanding the city gas covers 98% of India’s population and 88% of its
distribution (CGD) network and raising LNG gas, according to the ministry.
import capacity. In the short term, though, India’s natural gas
Other initiatives include plans to allow mar- consumption is reported to have fallen as refin-
keting and pricing freedom to gas produced ers, power generators and petrochemical com-
from high pressure/high temperature areas, panies cut back on usage owing to high current
deepwater, ultra-deepwater and coal seams. prices. India’s consumption fell 2.5% year or year
“Providing piped natural gas (PNG) con- in the first quarter of the 2023 fiscal year, accord-
nections and [the] establishment of compressed ing to Ministry of Petroleum data. Domestic out-
natural gas (CNG) stations is part of the devel- put rose 5% y/y at the same time. ™
opment of [the] CGD network and the same is
carried out by the entities authorised by [the]

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