Expansion of Gas Pipeline Project

The Minister of State (I/C) for Petroleum & Natural Gas Shri Dharmendra Pradhan informed the Lok Sabha in a written reply today that the details of existing network of gas pipelines including industrial pipelines and its capacities to transport gas/LPG across the country is given at Annexure-I.

At present, the country is having about 15,000 kms of natural gas pipeline infrastructure and an additional 15,000 kms of pipeline is required for completion of National Gas Grid. Out of this additional 15,000 kms, PNGRB/Government of India has authorized entities for laying of about 11,900 kms of pipelines and 1175 kms of pipeline is pending for award due to court case pending before the Hon’ble Supreme Court in respect of Ennore-Bengaluru-Puducherry-Nagapattinam-Madurai-Tuticorin natural gas pipeline. Further, in order to complete the national gas grid, Ministry has identified 3 pipeline sections having a total length of about 2500 kms for development through PPP mode with Viability Gap Funding Scheme of Ministry of Finance through Indian Infrastructure Project Development Fund (IIPDF). GAIL has been appointed as the “Sponsoring Authority” for development of Ranchi-Talcher-Paradip pipeline as a pilot project under PPP mode with Viability Gap Funding. The detailed status of ongoing gas pipeline projects is given at Annexure-II.

The actual gas demand is price sensitive and total gas consumption during 2014-15 was 116.78 MMSCMD (73.93 MMSCMD domestic and 42.85 MMSCMD R-LNG). Further, in order to enhance availability of natural gas in the country, Government has taken several steps which inter alia include the following:

1. Intensification of domestic Exploration & Production (E&P) activities through New Exploration Licensing Policy (NELP) rounds;

1. Shale Gas Policy framework;

iii.            Research and development of Gas Hydrate resources in the country;

1. Import of Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) from various countries;

1. Transnational pipelines viz., Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) pipeline and Iran-Pakistan-India(IPI) pipeline;

1. Clearance for exploration and development of some NELP blocks where the same was held up by various agencies; and

vii.            Exploration in the Mining Lease Area has been allowed with certain conditions.

viii.            Acquisition of Overseas Oil and Gas assets is being pursued in order to enhance energy security for the country.

Apart from above the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA), in its meeting dated 25.03.2015 and 31.03.2015 has approved the policy to revive and improve utilization of the stranded gas based power generation capacity and pooling of gas in fertilizer (urea) Sectors. The former has made R-LNG based power generation commercially viable for idle/ stranded gas based power plants.

The pooling of gas in fertilizer sector has enabled fertilizer plants to increase production of urea.