(PTI)
Facing a prospect of being split into two, GAIL India today said it supports reforms like unbundling of gas marketing and transportation business but such a move globally has been done only after gas market has matured. In a point by point rebuttal to critics, its Chairman and Managing Director B C Tripathi said GAIL is the only company in the country that has built multiple gas pipelines in last one decade while the private sector even after getting authorisation has not laid an inch.Also, it has thrown open all of the 11,400-km of pipeline length to third parties for accessing on common carrier basis, he told reporters here.
In mature markets, monopoly gas transporting and marketing companies have been unbundled or split after the share of natural gas in energy mix has reached at least 15 per cent and a well-connected pipeline network built. Also, domestically produced natural gas forms bulk of consumption.
In India, the share of natural gas in energy mix is 6.2 per cent, its eastern and southern parts are not connected to any pipeline and domestically produced gas makes up for just 40 per cent of the consumption. The Petroleum Ministry is looking at splitting GAIL into two firms to resolve the conflict of interest in it being both the transporter and marketer of natural gas.
While the ministry feels it hasn’t done enough to lay pipelines, some industry players have sought access to GAIL’s vast pipeline network for transporting their own gas. Tripathi replied to both the counts by emphatically stating that “every inch of the pipeline built in the country in last few years has been by GAIL alone” and 120 entities are already using 25 per cent of the company’s pipelines on common carrier basis.
