India's Natural Gas Consumption Seen at 473 mmscmd in 2017
India’s natural gas consumption is expected to grow 166.2 mmscmd to 473 mmscmd in 2017, while the sector as a whole is likely to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 19.5% in the five years, Oil Minister S. Jaipal Reddy said at 3rd Turkmenistan Gas Congress at Awaza.
India along with Pakistan signed the an agreement for the sale and purchase of natural gas as part of the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) pipeline project Wednesday.
The minister said that India is focusing on building LNG infrastructure on the one hand and expansion of gas pipelines across the country, on the other. India’s LNG re-gasification capacity is poised to go up from 13.5 million tonnes to 48 million tonnes by 2017.
India’s current gas pipeline network is around 13,000 km long with a capacity of 334 mmscmd, which is projected to grow to 31,757 km by 2017 with a capacity of 876 mmscmd.
Reddu added that India is also pursuing development of unconventional natural gas resources like shale gas and coal bed methane.
The minister said that India was keen to diversify its source of LNG supplies and is looking to LNG exporters across the globe.
“We are interested in not only buying additional quantities of LNG, but also seek to have equity participation in existing and upcoming LNG liquefaction projects globally. We are also keen to explore farm-in opportunities in producing oil & gas blocks whenever they may be available,” Reddy said.