BPCL, HPCL, Oil India bag license for building gas infra in J&K, Northeast

A total of eight geographical areas (GAs) were offered in the 12th CGD bidding round.

State-run oil Oil India Ltd (OIL), Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL), and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited (HPCL), among others bagged the licenses for building gas infrastructure in the Northeastern states and Jammu and Kashmir under the 12th city gas distribution (CGD) bidding round.

The government has decided to spend Rs 41,000 crore to build infrastructure in six Northeastern states and two Union Territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh, said Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas Hardeep Singh Puri at an event where the letters of intent (LoI) were awarded to successful bidders.

The 12th CGD bidding round constituted 8 Geographical Areas (GAs) across 6 Northeast states - Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Manipur, Nagaland, Sikkim and Mizoram - and two Union Territories of Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh. This round in totality covered 103 districts.

The winners for the GAs were as follows:

1. Arunachal Pradesh- BPCL and OIL consortium
2. Meghalaya- Haryana City Gas
3. Manipur- Tripura Natural Gas Company Ltd
4. Mizoram- Tripura Natural Gas Company Ltd
5. Sikkim- HPCL
6. Nagaland- HPCL and Oil India
7. Jammu and Kashmir- BPCL
8. Ladakh- BPCL

Investment push

India will invest Rs 41,000 crore to build infrastructure in the GAs awarded in the 12th round as a part of its strategy to boost natural gas consumption.

The government has been pushing for increased consumption of natural gas in the country to achieve net-zero emission targets by 2070.

The government plans to increase the share of natural gas to 15 percent by 2030 in the country’s energy basket from the current 6.2 percent.

“Northeastern states and the UTs of Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh have been under special focus of the government to push the economic growth in these regions. The envisaged natural gas infrastructure development in North-East states would also lead to better utilization of domestic gas being produced locally in the region,” said Puri.

Puri added that the government has set an objective to invest $67 billion in the natural gas sector in the next six years in order to provide natural gas to the end consumer at a stable price.

Puri stated that the current measures planned by the government would lead to threefold increase in natural gas consumption taking it to 500 million metric standard cubic meter per day ( (MMSCMD) by 2030 from 185 (MMSCMD). This would also help promote ancillary industries dependent on natural gas.

Anil Kumar Jain, Chairman of Petroleum and Natural Gas Regulatory Body (PNGRB), said compressed natural gas (CNG) has a lot of potential in the states covered under the 12th bidding round. Development of the North Eastern Gas Grid and Gurdaspur – Jammu Natural Gas Pipeline would play a vital role for the development of the natural gas network, he added.

In India, over 33,753 km of natural gas trunk pipelines are authorised, out of which around 24,623 km of pipeline are currently operational. Meanwhile, the 300 GAs authorised in the country cover 98 percent of the population and 88 percent of the area.

Till date, 1.21 crore domestic piped natural gas (PNG) connections and 6,258 CNG stations have been established in the country.