CNG NEWS

In a bid to boost the natural gas-based economy, Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas & Housing and Urban Affairs Hardeep Singh Puri dedicated 166 Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) stations to serve the community. The 166 CNG pumps have been set up by GAIL (India) Limited and nine of its group City Gas Distribution (CGD) companies in 41 Geographical Areas (GAs) across 14 states. According to Puri, the CNG stations will incentivise the market of such vehicles and will have a positive impact on manufacturing and employment generation.

According to sources, the decision is aimed to tackle the shortage of administered gas provided to CGD companies under priority sector allocation and will help to bring down the prices of auto (CNG) and cooking fuels (PNG).

State-run ONGC on March 31 said it will commercialise the Vindhyan gas basin located in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh. This would be the ninth producing basin of India.

Indraprastha Gas Limited (IGL) is planning to set up dispensing stations of CNG within residential housing complexes. IGL has been under pressure to cut long queues at CNG stations, which often leads to traffic problems in New Delhi. MD, IGL informed about plans of adding record 60 CNG dispensing stations. For each CNG dispensing station, IGL requires a 10*10 metre sq area, which it will man itself.

IOCL inked Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with state government of Haryana for setting up bio-CNG plants across the state. Using paddy straw and other agri-waste as feedstock, the first compressed biogas plant (CBP) will be established in Kurukshetra. Establishing a 100 tpd biogas plant requires an investment of about ₹35 crore and six to ten acres of land. The state government is looking forward to construct 200 CBP by 2023.

India’s biggest city gas retailer, Indraprastha gas Limited (IGL) is planning to set-up over 60 CNG stations across the country. IGL MD said that the firm has adopted a dealer-franchise model to rapidly expand the network. IGL currently runs 452 CNG stations in different cities of India. The government is insistent on increasing the stakes of natural gas in the country's energy basket to 15%.

BG Asia Pacific Holdings sold its 14% stake in Mahanagar Gas Ltd, which is a CNG retailing firm, in the open market. BGAPH is a totally owned subsidiary of Shell India. After this, the company’s stake reduces to 10% in the CNG firm. BGAPH informed that the "sale of equity shares (was executed) in the open market by way of a bulk deal" but the transaction value was not specified.

The 9th City Gas Distribution results for 48 out of 86 cities have been declared, with Adani Gas winning big. The Gautam Adani-led group won rights to market CNG in 11 cities of India, wherein licenses for six cities are its own while the rest are in JV with IOCL. Bharat Gas Resources Ltd and Torrent Gas Pvt Ltd each won licenses for six cities. The bidding round was regulated by PNGRB.

Following an anti-trust violation over the sale of CNG, the State Administration for Market Regulation has imposed a $12.35 million fine on PetroChina’s Daqing gas sales units. The Daqing gas sales division had entered into a market monopoly agreement with 13 suppliers of compressed natural gas across various Chinese cities. Lower domestic gas supplies have forced LNG prices to climb higher in the country.