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Natural Gas Sector in India
While natural gas has been produced in India in the states of Gujarat and Assam since the 1960s, the production and consumption remained at a small scale and confined to these two states till the 1970s
The natural gas sector in India got a major boost following the discovery of the Bombay High Field in 1974 and significant gas reserves off the western coast of India thereafter
With these finds, the Government of India studied various ways to optimize the utilization of the offshore reserves and the infrastructure facilities required for the same
Although all the fractions of the gas could be used for fertilizer production and power generation, the two most priority sectors at that time, with the aim to maximize value addition, the GOI decided that the C2 / C3 fractions be extracted for petrochemicals production and C4 fraction to be extracted and marketed as LPG, and the bulk, the C1 fraction, to be used in Fertilizers / Power and sponge iron manufacture, besides other end-uses
The construction of the Hazira-Bijaipur-Jagdishpur (HBJ) cross-country pipeline was completed in 1987, and this pipeline even today remains the backbone of the natural gas transportation in India
The 1990s saw development of fields like Tapti, Panna-Mukti and Ravva by the private sector in joint ventures with ONGC. In 2002, Reliance announced its gas discovery in Krishna-Godavari Basin. The production from the Basin began in 2008-09
India became LNG importer in 2004-05. While LNG has supplemented domestic gas production, India is one of the most price sensitive gas markets in the world. Hence the natural gas consumption significantly depends on the gas pricing, as the two major consuming sectors, viz. power and fertilizer are very senstitive to gas pricing
Presently in India the share of natural gas in energy basket is less than 7%. The Government has set a target to raise the share of natural gas in energy mix to 15% in 2030
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