tamperfinderNew Delhi: Oil Minister Dharmendra Pradhan today said that the global investor industry has its eyes on India’s growing energy sector and investments in the tune of $300 billion is expected in the sector in the coming decade.
“The global investor industry is today keenly looking at Indian energy sector as an attractive investment destination. About 300 billion dollars would be invested in coming decade,” Pradhan said, speaking at KPMG’s annual energy conclave – ENRich 2018.
He added that Asia’s biggest greenfield oil refinery-cum-petrochemical complex is being set up collectively by Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs) along with Saudi Aramco and ADNOC in the state of Maharashtra at a cost of about $40 billion.
Speaking on city gas distribution network, Pradhan said that work on 174 districts has begun which will further expand to cover over 400 districts in next 2-3 years covering 70 per cent of the population and 52 per cent of India’s geography.
Talking about boosting India’s natural gas infrastructure and connecting the north-east part of the country with natural gas Pradhan said, “work is underway on 2600 km long Jagdishpur-Haldia and Bokaro-Dhamra pipeline project also known as Pradhan Mantri Urja Ganga project. This project is being further extended from Barauni to Guwahati for connecting the other areas of the Northeast with the gas grid. Approximately Rs.13,000 crores will be spent on these projects.”
He added that in order to connect north eastern states with gas grid, Indradhanush Gas Grid Ltd has been formed to lay 1500 km pipeline with an investment of Rs 6000 cr.
Pradhan said that the government will soon be setting up a gas trading hub that will allow easy and ready access to gas suppliers and buyers to freely trade natural gas and in turn help India to develop its own hub based pricing.
He added that the proposal to set-up the hub will be sent to the cabinet soon.
Petroleum and Natural Gas Regulatory Board (PNGRB), India’s downstream oil and gas regulator, has appointed ratings agency CRISIL as consultant to prepare regulations for the planned Natural Gas Trading Exchange.
PNGRB will be working with Oil Industry Development Board (OIDB) to work out the complete regulation, operations and location of the upcoming gas exchange platform.[ET Energy World]
Add comment