India Plans LNG Stations Along Major Highways: Press

India is planning a network of LNG fuelling stations along its 6,000-km long golden quadrilateral highways, Economic Times reported January 19.

State-run Gail, India biggest gas marketing and transportation company, is in talks with all stakeholders – city gas distributors, gas suppliers, financiers, fleet owners and truck manufacturers – to get them on board and help build an ecosystem for LNG-fuelled vehicles in the country, people familiar with the development told the newspaper.

About 350 LNG fuelling stations will be needed to cover the full length of the golden quadrilateral, as per the initial plan, Economic Times said. Regulations permit only those with city gas distribution licences to set up LNG stations, and therefore, various licence holders will build fuelling stations in specific stretches of the expressway that fall in their respective licence areas, the newspaper added.

About a fifth of the golden quadrilateral’s length falls in areas for which Gail and its joint venture units have licences. Gail is planning to build about 90 LNG stations, the newspaper reported citing sources.

Gail is also in talks with ExxonMobil and Mitsui, which can potentially partner as LNG suppliers as well as financiers for the initial lot of LNG trucks planned to hit Indian roads, sources told Economic Times. The plan is to get at least 10,000 LNG trucks, most of which would be initially imported, sources said.

At present, Indian cities have about 3.5mn CNG vehicles, but barely any that use LNG.