New Delhi: Oil Minister Dharmendra Pradhan on Monday launched a new online trading platform for gas that is expected to help the move towards free-market pricing of natural gas.
The platform, Indian Gas Exchange (IGX), is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the IEX, India’s energy market platform. The platform is a fully automated web-based interface that lets customers trade on gas contracts.
Dharmendra said that the process will help India join the club of progressive economies where gas prices will be market-driven and this will lead to a free market for gas.
“The Petroleum and Natural Gas Regulatory Board (PNGRB) is working on rationalization of tariff to make natural gas affordable in every part of the country,” he said.
The Union Minister explained that the government should not be in this business and the consumer is the king in a free market.
he further said that these steps will make India a gas-based economy, which already has multiple price bands for assets including pre-NELP, NELP, High Temperature and High Pressure (HTHP) and Deepwater and Ultra Deep Water blocks.
India will soon have 50 MMT LNG terminal capacity. The country already has long-term gas contracts with many countries like Qatar, Australia, Russia and the US, and investments abroad in strategic assets in Mozambique, Russia and other countries.
Domestically, various ongoing projects like Urja Ganga, Eastern India grid, Indradhanush project in the North-east, Dhamra-Dahej pipeline, coal gasification and CBM policy, will help strengthen the gas infrastructure here, Dharmendra added.
India will have more than 30,000 km of pipeline in the next few years, he concluded.
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