City gas distribution poised for a big leap - Deora

Shri Murli Deora, Union Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas informed at a press conference in Mumbai today that the Government has decided to promote use of Piped Natural Gas (PNG) and Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) in other metro, mega cities and towns in India. It is expected that 2 crore homes will reap benefits of piped gas. Similarly, a large number of vehicles including public transport will run on CNG. The rate of growth in City Gas distribution can be seen from the fact that out of the 376 CNG stations in the country today, 172 stations were added during the last two years - a growth of almost 84 percent.

He added that GAIL, a PSU under the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas has identified major cities across the country for development of City Gas Distribution (CGD) projects. Apart from Mumbai and Delhi-Agra, Kanpur, Lucknow, Faridabad, Pune, Patna, Varanasi, Ahmedabad, Sholapur, Hyderabad, Bangalore, Chennai, Kolkata, Bareilly, Rajahmundry, Vijayawada, Vadodara, Navi Mumbai & Thane, NCR cities (Gurgaon & Noida), Allahabad, Jhansi, Mathura, Gwalior, Indore, Ujjain, Rajkot, Surendranagar, Kota and Kochi have been identified. The implementation of City Gas Projects in these cities is linked to availability of gas. Most of the cities are expected to be covered by 2009. Apart from these cities identified for city gas distribution network, 200 cities are likely to be on city gas distribution map of India in due course. In a presentation on the occasions it was pointed out that these 200 cities would span across 15 states and are estimated who have a population of about 160 million. For domestic (PNG) and for vehicles (CNG) requirement had been estimated at 10 million metric standard cubic meters per day (MMSCMD) respectively. The PNG consumption by 20 million households is expected to replace 16 crore LPG cylinders which could be utilized for further penetration of domestic LPG to the households in rural areas.

Further, Shri Deora informed that the scenario of natural gas availability in the country is set for a major change in the coming years with an increase of more than 100 per cent in the availability of natural gas following the recent discoveries in the country, specially on the east coast, namely, the KG and the Mahanadi basins where large discoveries of gas have been reported. The projected availability of gas is expected to increase substantially from the present around 95 MMSCMD to around 170 MMSCMD in the coming two years. The Government is implementing a multi-pronged strategy to augment gas supplies and bridge the gap between supply and demand for the domestic market. Exploration & Production activities have been intensified with 6 bidding rounds under the New Exploration Licensing Policy awarding over 150 blocks. Under Coal Bed Methane (CBM) Policy , three bidding rounds have been successfully undertaken with a total of 26 CBM blocks awarded so far. Initiatives under National Gas Hydrate Programme are underway to pioneer study of large potential of gas from Hydrate deposits indicated, both in the western as well as eastern offshore areas of India. Impetus has been given to import of Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG). Currently around 18 MMSCMD (5 MMTPA) of regasified LNG is supplied by PLL. Further about 6 MMSCMD of spot R-LNG is also being supplied. Another 2.5 MMTPA of LNG would be available from Qatar from 2009 onwards. LNG terminal at Hazira is operational. LNG import terminal in Dabhol is being completed by Ratnagiri Gas and Power Private Limited.

He emphasized one of the major beneficiaries of this large availability of natural gas will be the City Gas Distribution segment, catering to the transportation and the household sectors in cities across India. GAIL and other companies are currently engaged in developing the pipeline infrastructure for a large distribution network which will facilitate the extension of City Gas Distribution to the cities falling closer to the pipeline routes

Integration of existing and new pipelines would enable taking gas to new markets. GAIL, in association with ONGC and Reliance Industries, is in the process of developing mechanisms which would enable networking of their proposed and existing pipelines to make available the gas from KG Basin, to the western and northern markets. This would help create an integrated gas supply system in the country with the addition of about 2500 km of trunk pipelines, expected to be laid in the foreseeable future.

GAIL’s existing network of over 5600 km. of natural gas high pressure trunk pipeline with capacity to carry about 123 MMSCMD of natural gas across the country is being augmented. GAIL’s Dahej Uran Pipeline (DUPL) & Dabhol Panvel Pipeline (DPPL) and Jagoti-Pithampur pipelines will be commissioned shortly. Further, based on projected gas availability, GAIL has plans to lay new pipelines from Jagdishpur to Haldia, Kochi to Kanjirkkod to Mangalore, Dadri to Nangal, Chainsa to Hissar and Dabhol to Bangalore to make the environmental friendly fuel available to consumers in new markets.

Shri P.K. Sinha, Joint Secretary and Financial Advisor, Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, Dr. U.D. Choubey, CMD, GAIL and Shri Ashok Sinha, CMD, BPCL were present along with senior officers of the Petroleum Ministry and oil PSUs. Natural Gas is a much cheaper and safer fuel as compared to petrol, diesel and LPG. It is a clean-burning fuel that reduces vehicle maintenance by extending interval of oil change and making spark plugs last longer. Natural gas, unlike liquid fuels, cannot be siphoned from a vehicle. Fuel theft is on-going concern of commercial operators, using petrol and diesel. At present, the CGD projects are under operation in Delhi and Mumbai on a large scale. These two cities together supply gas to about four lakh households and to more than three lakh vehicles.

Source : Press Information Bureau

Keywords