Indian Gail Plans Major Investment: Press

Indian state-owned Gail plans to invest close to rupees 450bn ($6.3bn) over the next five years to expand its pipeline grid and city gas distribution network, chairman Ashutosh Karnatak said August 20 during company’s annual general meeting, according to a report by Press Trust of India.

Gail will invest in major cross-country pipeline projects, including the Urja Ganga project, the Koch-Kootanad-Bangalore-Mangalore project, the Indradhanush North East Gas Grid and other crucial pipelines connecting supply and demand centres, Karnatak said.

About rupees 320bn would go into pipeline laying and another rupees 120bn in city gas distribution (CGD) networks for retailing of CNG to automobiles and piped natural gas to households. Investments would also go into the expansion of petrochemical plants, Press Trust reported. Gail is looking to put up 400 CNG stations and give out 1mn piped natural gas (PNG) connections to household in the next 3-5 years.

India is aiming to raise the share of natural gas in the energy mix from 6-7% at present to 15% by 2030. The rationale is to ease the severe air pollution in urban clusters. The government expects the city gas segment to be a major demand driver. According to a recent study on India’s CNG infrastructure, released by Nomura Research Institute (NRI Consulting & Solutions) during the NGV India Summit 2019 held in Delhi early-May, rapid development of infrastructure and the reduction in costs caused by domestic manufacturing will lead to a possible penetration of half the total fleet running on gas by 2030. India has about 3.3mn NGVs at present which could rise to 33mn by 2030.