Preparing India’s oil and gas sector for changing climate the Oil and Steel Minister Dharmendra Pradhan on Friday said the country is expected to witness an investment worth 6 lakh crore (Approx $75Billion) in its natural gas sector.
Addressing the Bloomberg New Energy (BNEF) Finance summit in Delhi, Pradhan said that the investment would flow in the space over the next 8 years.
“The country is ready to switch to clean and affordable fuels, it would be through a ‘holistic and integrated’ approach and all forms of transport that are clean and affordable will be considered in the energy policy,” he said in support of the Centre’s aggressive promotion for Electric Vehicles.
The Minister revealed that an investment close to 1.20 lakh crore investment would be required alone for the recently concluded City Gas Distribution (CGD) rounds across the country.
“When we assumed power in 2014, only 20 percent of the population was covered under city gas network. However, with the success of the 10th CGD bid round, the CGD network will expand to nearly 70 percent of our population. CGD would be available in 228 geographical areas comprising 402 districts spread over 27 states and union territories covering 53 percent of the country,” he said.
Eventually, this move would create compressed natural gas(CNG) corridors in return can be used for long-distance transportation. Going by his judgment a target of 40 million households would be connected with piped natural gas (PNG) in a span of 8 years compared to 2.5 million in 2014. transportation.
“The country’s energy sector is attractive for foreign investors and has repeatedly received funding from sovereign wealth funds, pension funds, western countries with long term strategies other than Asian and middle east countries,” Pradhan added.
In the light of growing demand for renewable energy and availability of sustainable finance raised from green bond markets from the overseas, the economy is projected to grow at over 7 percent.
Moreover, Norway State Pension Fund and a few other sovereign funds have refrained from investing in fossil fuel-based projects so the statement comes to a boost to economic development with clean fuel options like CNG, BioCNG and Natural Gas. Refineries in Indias are already upgrading themselves for BS-VI quality fuel production and supply that from 2020 across the country with an investment of 30, 000 crores.
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