Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan addressed 7th Asian Ministerial Energy Roundtable in Bangkok .
Following is the text of the speech titled “Natural Gas : Overcoming Market and Policy Hurdles to the Golden Age of Gas” delivered by Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas, Minister of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship Shri Dharmendra Pradhan at the Plenary Session of 7th Asian Ministerial Energy Roundtable at Bangkok, Thailand on 2stNovember, 2017.
“I welcome all the participants to this deliberation on natural gas. Five years ago, in 2012 the International Energy Agency had predicted that Natural Gas is poised to enter a golden age. I believe that Natural Gas, despite being a clean and green fuel with significant potential, is yet to achieve its rightful place in global energy markets. The main obstacles are lack of adequate infrastructure, market imperfections and uncompetitive practices which prevent global population from fully benefitting from the benefits of gas.
Coming to India, our gas uptake is less 6.5% of India’s primary energy basket against a global average of more than 24%. Government of India has envisioned to increase the share of natural gas in India’s energy mix to 15% by 2030.
India is currently the world’s fourth-largest importer of LNG, behind Japan, South Korea and China. Last year, India imported approximately 19 Million metric tons of LNG, an increase of around 15% over the previous year. India also has domestic gas production of almost the same amount. Fertilizer, Power & City Gas Distribution are the three main sectors which contribute to the natural gas demand in India. In coming years, industrial sectors such as refinery and petrochemicals, ceramics and glass, cement, steel and sponge iron, paints and dyes, chemicals and auto manufacturing are expected to give a boost to natural gas demand in the country.
Friends, we have taken several far-reaching measures in India to increase domestic production of gas and also to promote the usage of gas. We have introduced pricing and marketing freedom for gas producers in future exploration bidding rounds. India is developing a Natural Gas Trading Exchange where both imported LNG and domestically produced gas can be traded. We are looking to increase the consumption of natural gas through policy measures in each micro segment of consumption.
We are expanding the LNG re-gasification capacity on both East and West Coast of India. With additional six new re-gas terminals, we are targeting to increase our LNG regas capacity to above 50 MMTPA by 2022. We are working to develop National Gas Grid by constructing an additional 15,000 kms of Natural Gas Pipelines. India is aggressively scaling up its City Gas Distribution networks. We are also preparing a road map for using imported LNG, as a fuel for railways, Coastal shipping, inland navigation and long-haul road transportation.
In this meeting of Energy Ministers from Asia, I will like to mention that India, as a regional economic hub, is also keen to develop a South Asian gas grid connecting important neighbours such as Myanmar, Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan, Sri Lanka, etc. Indian companies are also trying out innovative models like small scale LNG to cater to countries like Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.
