India as a gas-based economy: Insights from Gujarat22 Feb 2024 12:25
India as a gas-based economy: Insights from Gujarat
AUTHORS : AKHILESH SATI | LYDIA POWELL | VINOD KUMAR TOMAR
Published on Apr 20, 2023
Replicating the success of Gujarat’s gas market across the country will be difficult but not impossible
India as a gas-based economy: Insights from Gujarat This article is part of the series Comprehensive Energy Monitor: India and the World
The share of natural gas in Gujarat’s primary energy mix is about 23 percent, close to the global average of 24 percent and four times the share of gas in India’s primary energy basket. Gujarat has the most extensive gas pipeline network in the country with over 3370 kilometres (km) of main lines that accounts for about 20 percent of gas pipelines of length 21,102 km in the country. Gujarat’s per capita natural gas consumption at 191 kgoe (kilogram oil equivalent) is 400 percent higher than the national average of 39 kgoe. Consumption of natural gas of 11,667,095 SCMD (standard cubic metres per day) through CGD (city gas distribution) by Gujarat in the first half of 2023 accounted for roughly 34 percent of total CGD consumption, the highest in the country. In 2022, Gujarat had the highest number of CNG (compressed natural gas) stations accounting for over 19 percent of total CNG stations in the country, the highest number of domestic PNG (piped natural gas) connections accounting for about 27 percent of the total, the highest number of commercial PNG connections accounting for 59 percent of the total and the highest number of industrial PNG connections accounting for 39 percent of the total. Gujarat has the second largest number of CNG vehicles with over 27 percent of the total at the national level after Delhi NCR which had a share of 37 percent. The success of Gujarat’s gas industry can be traced to the discovery of gas in Gujarat in the 1960s. This geographic proximity to gas supplies along with the enthusiasm of the Government of Gujarat to enlist industrial consumers with favourable prices which in turn led to investment in an extensive gas pipeline network was critical for the success of the gas industry in Gujarat. Proximity to Supplies The Oil and Natural Gas Commission (ONGC) discovered oil in the Cambay basin, Gujarat in 1958 and in Ankleshwar, Gujarat in 1960, just a few years after ONGC was set up. In fact, ONGC began exploration in Gujarat only after Oil India Limited (OIL) which was developing oil discoveries in Digboi in Assam in 1889 refused to work in Gujarat. Since ONGC’s front-end activity was exploration, the discipline of geology enjoyed great prestige in the early years and was central to strategic planning in the company. This led to discoveries in regions that were not thought to be attractive petroleum prospects by mature oil companies. The first major oil-find of ONGC in Ankleshwar located about 80 km south of Vadodara and nearly 160 km south of Khambhat was so p
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