India’s pure gas demand is anticipated to rise by 6 % in 2024 with a rise in consumption in fertiliser models, energy technology and industrial sectors, in accordance to the International Energy Agency (IEA). Following the 7 % year-on-year decline noticed in 2022, India’s main gas provide rose by 5 per cent in 2023, with progress primarily pushed by the petrochemical, energy technology, refinery and industrial sectors.
“Natural gas demand in India is expected to increase by 6 per cent in 2024, mainly supported by higher gas use in industry (including in the fertiliser sector) and stronger gas burn in the power sector amid the development of its national pipeline grid and city gas infrastructure,” IEA mentioned Gas Market Report launched final week. India’s pure gas demand had risen to 64 billion cubic meters in 2023.
Liquefied pure gas (LNG) imports rose by 7 per cent on the yr to 29 billion cubic meters final yr, with import dependency at 44 per cent of the nation’s pure gas consumption. Domestic manufacturing was up 6 per cent on the yr to 35 billion cubic meters on the again of a rise in output from Reliance Industries’ KG-D6 block. “We expect India to increase its LNG imports in 2024 by 7 per cent, fuelled by demand from the power and fertiliser sectors, as the country plans to stop importing urea by 2025,” IEA mentioned.
Natural gas extracted from beneath floor and seabeds is used to make fertiliser, generate electrical energy, convert into CNG to run cars, piped to households for cooking functions and used as gasoline and feedstock in industries. India’s home manufacturing is inadequate to meet demand and so the gasoline is imported as LNG in cryogenic ships. Power firms imported 2.32 billion cubic meters of LNG in 2023, making up round 9 per cent of complete imports and up by 76 per cent on the yr.
In November 2023 India authorised obligatory mixing of compressed biogas into the home gas provide. The mandate can be set at 1 per cent of complete compressed pure gas and home piped pure gas consumption from 2025, and raised regularly to 5 per cent from 2028-29. On reforms, IEA mentioned, “India continued to advance gas market reforms in 2023. The country introduced a unified pipeline tariff system on April 1, which could benefit consumers located far from domestic gas supply sources and/or LNG terminals. In addition to the market reforms, India is considering establishing strategic gas reserves to enhance gas supply security”.
The UFT coverage will apply to a community of 21 pipelines, representing round 90 per cent of pipelines in operation or underneath development. The worth of transporting gas consists of two parts – a hard and fast unified tariff based mostly on the levelised price of service of all the pipeline community, and a variable zonal issue relying on distance.
“The UFT policy aims to create a more stable, competitive and transparent pricing regime, which should benefit both gas supply and demand. It is expected to assist the government in achieving the ‘One Nation One Grid One Tariff’ model,” it mentioned. The IEA mentioned India has authorised a National Green Hydrogen Mission in January 2023. The mission units a goal for at the least 5 million tonnes a yr of inexperienced hydrogen manufacturing by 2030, “with potential to reach 10 million tonnes with growth of export markets”. It proposes two distinct monetary incentive schemes to assist home manufacturing of electrolysers, in addition to the manufacturing of inexperienced hydrogen. The preliminary outlay of the mission is round USD 2.4 billion.
(With inputs from PTI)
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