India's Natural Gas Pipeline Set to Reach New Milestone with 10,805 km Expansion

As per the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, India’s natural gas pipeline network is going to expand by 10,805 km. this will be an addition to the existing 24,945 km operational network. 

The expansion is part of the national gas grid, the completion of which will ensure uniform availability of natural gas across regions.

India also aims to achieve 20% ethanol blending in petrol by 2025 under the Ethanol Blended Petrol Programme. As per record till December 2024, ethanol blending rose to 16.23%, up from 14.60% in the previous year. 

Over the last decade, the programme has saved ₹1.08 lakh crore in foreign exchange as well as reduced CO2 emissions by 557 lakh metric tonnes and facilitated ₹92,400 crores in payments to farmers.

The SATAT initiative has led to the commissioning of  80 compressed bio-gas (CBG) plants, with another 72 such plants under construction. From 2025-26, blending of CBG in CNG and PNG segments will become mandatory, starting at 1% and gradually increasing to 5% by 2028-29.

The ministry also revealed that public sector oil marketing companies have installed 17,939 electric vehicle (EV) charging stations and 206 battery-swapping stations at retail outlets across the country till December 2024.

In addition, India is expecting to see a rise in refining capacity from 256.8 million metric tonnes per annum (MMTPA) to 309.5 MMTPA by 2028. The increase will be done by ongoing projects at 11 PSU refineries and the establishment of new green field refineries.

Domestic gas production has also seen an increase from 34.45 billion cubic metres (BCM) in 2022-23 to 36.44 BCM in  2023-24. The Ministry also said that 13 hydrocarbon discoveries under the Hydrocarbon Exploration Licensing Policy (HELP) and 12 discoveries under nomination and contractual regimes during  2023-24 have taken place. 

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