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New Delhi: International Energy Agency (IEA) and Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas of India, today organized a joint webinar on “Building a Natural Gas‑Based Economy in India Amidst a Changing Global Gas Market Landscape”. The Workshop, inaugurated in the presence of Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas & Steel Dharmendra Pradhan, and Executive Director of IEA Dr. Faith Birol, brought together international experts on gas sector and relevant stakeholders across the Indian energy ecosystem.
In his inaugural address, Pradhan said that India is all set to emerge as one of the primary drivers of growth in gas demand in Asia, despite the pressing Covid-19 challenges, owing to a combination of Government’s pursuance of consistent policies and initiatives, as well as fast developing pipeline infrastructure. He said that in order to give a fillip to the gas based economy, focus is being given to enhancing domestic gas production, expeditious development of gas infrastructure as well as development of Gas market by providing open access to gas infrastructure.
On creation of free gas market, the Minister said that the Government is progressively moving towards a marketing and pricing freedom regime in the country. Gas grid is being expanded to new markets in eastern and north-eastern part of the country with Government’s supports of capital grants for Pradhan Mantri Urja Ganga (PMUG) and Indradhanush North Eastern Gas Grid projects. Coverage of City Gas projects is being expanded to 232 Geographical Areas (GAs) spread over more than 400 districts, with a potential to cover about 53% of the country’s geography and 70% of country’s population. He said that all these steps support the vision of Hon’ble Prime Minister to usher a gas-based economy in the country.
The Minister said that with a view to further facilitate conducive business environment for competitive gas markets, efforts are underway to rationalise gas pipeline tariff structure for improving the affordability of gas across the country and for attracting investments into the gas infrastructure. The present zonal tariff structure for the gas pipelines results into additive tariffs for usage of multiple pipelines to transport natural gas from the distant gas supply sources. It causes wide disparity in pipeline tariffs particularly for the buyers located distant from the gas sources and thus it hinders the development of new gas markets/ demand centres in far flung and remote areas.