India to Have 1000 LNG Stations in Three Years: Minister
India hopes to have 1,000 LNG filling stations along its major highways at intervals of a few hundred kilometres in the next three years, the country’s petroleum and natural gas minister Dharmendra Pradhan said November 19. He was attending the ceremony marking the start of work on the first 50 stations. The government has identified LNG as a transport fuel as a priority area and the aim is for a tenth of trucks to run on natural gas.
The first 50 will be set up and commissioned in partnership by state companies such as Indian Oil Corp, BPCL, HPCL, Gail, Petronet LNG, Gujarat Gas. Indian Oil will set up 20 stations, while BPCL and HPCL will set up 11 each.
LNG as heavy vehicle fuel can provide around 20-25mn m3/day of new gas demand by 2035 and will play an important role in boosting gas demand, Pradhan said. The Indian government is aiming to boost the share of gas in the energy mix from 6-7% today to 15% by 2030.