Indian Gas Demand Hinges on Houses, Transport: Petronet

India's city gas distribution (CGD) and gas in transport plans are key to the country's future LNG demand, according to the CEO of Indian LNG importer Petronet, Prabhat Singh. Singh was speaking at the CWC World LNG Summit in Rome December 4.

Singh said CGD would mean the gas system reaching half of the country and nearly 70% of the population. CGD represents "the last point of connectivity" which, once in place, would see Indian LNG demand rise substantially, he said.

Singh estimated CGD would attract between $15bn to $18bn of investment over the next five to eight years, resulting in additional LNG demand of 15-18mn mt/yr. India today imports about 20mn mt/yr. In addition, Singh said small-scale LNG demand would also rise.

In particular, he pointed to the potential deployment of 85,000 inter-city buses and up to 250,000 long-distance trucks running on LNG. He put the additional LNG demand from small-scale applications at 7-9mn mt/yr. These increases would come on top of rising gas consumption in other sectors such as industry, power and fertilizer production.