Govt trying to boost domestic availability of natural gas: Petroleum Secy Tarun Kapoor
Speaking at the ETEnergyworld Annual Gas Conclave, Kapoor said the government has set a target to ensure primary energy percentage for natural gas goes up from the current level of 6.7 per cent to 15 per cent by 2030.
New Delhi: The government is trying to boost the domestic availability of natural gas by ramping up production from existing fiels and at the same time speeding up work on new discoveries, Tarun Kapoor, Secretary, Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas (MoPNG) said. Speaking at the ETEnergyworld Annual Gas Conclave, Kapoor said the government has set a target to ensure primary energy percentage for natural gas “This would still be lower than the world average of 24 per cent but it would involve huge capacity addition, policy changes and the consumption of natural gas will go up substantially in absolute terms,” he said, adding the country’s total annual gas consumption stands at 60,000 million cubic meters (mcm) and more than 50 per cent of that is imported. He said the country wants to become self-sufficient when it comes to availability of natural gas and that requires more exploration and increase in production. As there have been major discoveries in K G Basin in the recent years the domestic production has gone up substantially. The Conclave is a unique initiative launched by ETEnergyworld jointly with GE, Locusview, GAIL (India), Pipeline Infrastructure (PIL) and Shell. The two day event opened with a Curtain Raiser on Tuesday, setting the stage for two days of extensive deliberations with the industry stakeholders including the top leaders from the public and the private sector beginning Thursday. Kapoor was among the key voices from the government who spoke at the event. “The total increase in domestic production exected next year is around 30 mmscmd. An increase of 18 mmscmd has already happened and we are looking forward to some more discoveries. Natural gas production in Assam is also expected to go up soon,” he said. The secretary also said that in order to boost domestic production, the government is looking at Compressed Bio Gas (CBG) blending too, and it is working on a huge target of setting up 5,000 CBG plants by 2024-25 and LoIs have already been issued for more than 2,600 such plants and work on them has also started. “This is a journey that will take its time. There are several difficulties too. However, it is very promising. It should contribute to around 10 per cent of our requirement if all these plants get commissioned. We could do even more as the availability of agricultural residue and other types of feedstock is huge in India,” Kapoor said. Other key speakers at the event include V K Saraswat, Member, NITI Aayog; Mukesh Kumar Surana, Chairman & Managing Director, Hindustan Petroleum Corporation; and Pankaj Kumar, Chairman, Gujarat State Petroleum Corporation & Chief Secretary – Government of Gujarat. Other speakers from the public sector Oil & Gas landscape in India include C Laxma Reddy, Additional Director General (Exploration), Directorate General of Hydrocarbons (DGH); E S Ranganathan, Director (Marketing), GAIL (India); R K Srivastava, Director (Exploration), ONGC; SSV Ramakumar, Director – R&D, The private industry leaders who would grace the occasion include Deepesh Nanda, CEO, GE Gas Power South Asia; Shahar Levi, Co-founder & CEO, Locusview; Akhil Mehrotra, Managing Director & CEO, Pipeline Infrastructure Ltd; and Nakul Raheja, Country Head, Shell Energy India.