Government pushes faster PNG rollout amid Gulf crisis

New Delhi: Oil secretary Neeraj Mittal Thursday pressed city gas distribution (CGD) companies to accelerate the pace of adding household piped gas connections by expanding capacity and leveraging technology, even as the government eased infrastructure rollout and clearance processes amid the supply disruptions caused by the Iran war.

India is pushing its vast base of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) users to shift to piped natural gas (PNG) to reduce import dependence, after heavy reliance on Gulf supplies exposed vulnerabilities.

Also Read: India looks to turn LPG import crisis into push for piped gas


"It's only when we are faced with adversity, we can actually see the chinks in our armour," Mittal said at a conference on energy security organised by the Petroleum and Natural Gas Regulatory Board (PNGRB) and Indraprastha Gas. "The Gulf crisis has shown that...when things are not as bad as they could be, we forget to plan for adversities."

Over the past month, the government has moved swiftly to remove longstanding bottlenecks that held back city gas expansion for more than a decade, issuing orders for time-bound clearances, and levying reasonable fees for laying and operating CGD infrastructure.