India plans more reforms in natural gas sector 

India plans to bring in more reforms in the natural gas sector and will build a gas trading hub to aid better price discovery for domestic as well as imported fuel, oil minister Dharmendra Pradhan said.

Also, the country plans to double its network of pipelines transporting natural gas to 30,000 km in the next three to four years as part of plans to shift to a gas-based economy to cut greenhouse emissions and reduce its reliance on imported oil.

“We are in the process of reforming the gas market in India where you can sell your gas through a gas trading hub,” he said at the 22nd World Petroleum Congress in Istanbul.

Natural gas in India is sold on the basis of a government-mandated formula that links the local price to rates prevailing in gas-surplus nations. In comparison, most long-term contracts for import of gas are linked or indexed to oil.

The absence of market determined prices has been a big disincentive for companies to invest in gas exploration and production.

Now, the government has begun discussions about building a trading platform, he said but did not give any target date for starting the hub.

New Delhi is committed to cutting a third of its emission by 2030, partly by boosting the use of cleaner burning fuels.

“We are also completing a 30,000 km national gas grid soon. We can proudly claim that we have not only brought in policy reforms, but also implemented them,” Pradhan said in his speech, a copy of which was released by his ministry here.

The minister invited global companies to come and invest in the Indian oil and gas sector, which has been thrown open with the Open Acreage Licensing policy that allows investors to choose from 2.8 million square km to explore.

While a slowdown seems to have become the new norm in the global economy, India, on the contrary, has managed to maintain a GDP growth rate in the last two years, he said.

“India is marching steadily towards emerging as a leading global economy, aided by several transformational reforms and innovative campaigns by the government,” he said.

India, he said, has emerged as one of the most attractive investment destinations with a record $60 billion of FDI inflows in 2016-17 fiscal.

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