The Minister of Petroleum & Natural Gas H S Puri on Thursday launched the 12th City Gas Distribution (CGD) bidding round through which the government wants to create natural gas infrastructure in north eastern states and Jammu & Kashmir (J&K).

In his address, Puri said the government’s focus is to increase share of gas in India’s energy basket. At present, 98 per cent of India’s population and 88 per cent area has already been covered for CGD development in the last 11 rounds.

“Government of India is focused to promoteusage of natural gas as a fuelor feedstock across the country to increase the share of natural gas in primary energy mix from current level to 15 per cent in coming years. An approximate investment of $67 billion is expected in natural gas infrastructure in next 5-6 years,” he added.

The Petroleum and Natural Gas Regulatory Board (PNGRB) Chairman Anil Jain emphasised that the current focus of the regulator is to create a vibrant and sustainable gas infrastructure in the entire country. The launch of this bidding round for these Himalayan States is a step towards providing a cleaner fuel in the fragile ecosystem of these states.

“The $4.5 billion investment expected is in gas infrastructure such as pipelines, pumping stations, etc. The investment which may come by industries and others following this (auction) is not included in this number, Jain added.

Bidding schedule

The PNGRB is in the process of inviting electronic bids from interested parties for the 12th CGD bidding round offering seven Geographical Areas (GA) covering the states of Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Manipur, Nagaland and Sikkim as well as the union territories of Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh.

The electronic bids would be invited from October 13, 2023, and the last date for submission of bids is January 11, 2024. The regulator intends to finalise the award by March 2024.

After completion of 12th CGD bidding round, almost the entire part of the country, except Mizoram (as the election date was announced on October 9), Andaman and Nicobar Islands and Lakshadweep will be covered under the CGD network..

Currently, there are 300 GAs authorised by PNGRB covering around 88 per cent of the country’s geographical area and 98 per cent population. It has also authorised around 32,203 kms of natural gas trunk pipelines in, out of which around 22,191 kms of pipelines are currently operational.

Besides, around 12,000 km of pipeline network has been approved and is under construction.

“This amounts to a giant leap by the PNGRB towards improving the share of natural gas in the country’s energy mix. India’s current share of gas in the energy mix stands at 5.78 per cent, which is slated to increase to 15 per cent by 2030 thereby creating a gas-based economy,” the regulator said.

Only change in the auction is that earlier the district was made as geographical area (GA), but now the new pipeline, Indradhanush Gas Gird, is touching the capital of all the Northeastern states. So, the PNGRB has taken the state capital as one GA, PNGRB Member Gajendra Singh said.

CGD network

At present, there are 300 GAs under the CGD network in India. As of August 2023, India has a total of 1.16 crore piped natural gas (PNG) connections and 6,000 compressed natural gas (CNG) stations.

In 276 of the 300 GAs, industrial customers are consuming gas. The total consumption by CGD is 35 million standard cubic meters per day (MSCMD). The maximum is going to CNG and industrial customers. Around 8-10 MSCMD is going to industrial (small industries) and commercial (hotels, etc) customers, PNGRB’s Singh said.

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