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Posted 13 Feb 2025

Updated 14 Feb 2025

2 min read

Report recommends policy reforms as India aims to increase share of cleaner natural gas in its energy mix to 15% by 2030, up from 6% today.

Key Findings

  • India's Gas Consumption: It will grow by 60% by 2030 and City gas distribution (CGD) sector will lead demand growth.
    • CGD sector supply natural gas to households, industries, etc through pipelines.
  • India's Gas Production: Reached 35 billion cubic meters (bcm) in 2023, and Krishna-Godavari deepwater fields contributes one-fourth of total output.
  • Imports: India is the fourth-largest LNG importer globally; Imports to more than double by 2030.
  • Compressed Biogas (CBG) Potential remains largely untapped (present capacity is <1% of the potential).

Challenges faced by the Gas Sector in India

  • Current Pricing Issues:
    • Gas prices from legacy fields (an old, mature natural gas field) are capped at ~USD 10 per million British thermal units (MMBtu), inhibiting full discovery of gas price.
    • Limits are also imposed on gas from high-cost fields like deepwater projects.
  • State-owned GAIL (Gas Authority of India Limited) dominates both gas marketing and pipeline transmission, creating potential conflicts of interest.
  • India lacks underground gas storage (UGS) facilities and has limited LNG storage capacity.

Policy Recommendations 

  • Liberalizing Gas Pricing: Gradually extend pricing freedom to all fields, as suggested by the Kirit Parekh Committee (2022). Lift price ceilings on deepwater and ultra-deepwater projects.
  • Establish independent gas transmission system operators (TSOs) to ensure fair and non-discriminatory access to pipelines.
  • Harmonize taxation of competing fuels (e.g., coal); promote the Indian Gas Exchange (IGX) for efficient price discovery.
  • Efficient infrastructure development with transparent third-party access. E.g. Building Strategic Gas Reserves.
  • Tags :
  • Compressed Biogas
  • IEA
  • Indian Gas Exchange
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