New Delhi: Amid raging controversy on the reported Rs 10.7 lakh crore coal scam, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Friday said the government wished to work with international companies having requisite experience and expertise for exploitation of coal seam gas since India has one of the world’s largest coal reserves.
In his inaugural address at the seventh Asia Gas Partnership summit, he said the government was pursuing development of sources of unconventional gas like Shale gas and Coal Bed Methane and had undertaken mapping of India’s shale gas resources.
The government, he said, was also working to put in place a regulatory regime for licensing rounds by the end of 2013 and was harnessing Coal Bed Methane for which four licensing rounds had been held with commercial production having commenced at Raniganj in West Bengal.
He said the government was conscious of the need for remunerative prices to ensure expanded energy supply but asserted that oil and gas should be within the framework of government and regulatory oversight since they are national resources.
The Government had initiated gas pricing policy reforms to incentivise production of natural gas and economic exploitation of these resources should lead to win-win solutions for both the investors as well as the people at large, he said.
The Prime Minister, who also dedicated to the nation the 2,000 km-long Dahej-Vijaipur-Bawana-Nangal/Bhatinda pipeline of the GAIL, said the pipeline could be extended up to the border with Pakistan.
Pointing out that India’s target is to have a country-wide gas grid of about 30,000 km by the end of the 12th Five Year Plan in 2017, the Prime Minister said India had launched an ambitious pipeline development programme and GAIL would expand its pipeline length from the existing 9000 km to about 14,500 km by 2014.
Private operators were also expected to add another 5,000 km in the same period.
Reaffirming the government’s commitment to ensuring predictability and transparency of policy and regulatory environment, the Prime Minister said while governmental support could greatly help in developing useful partnerships in oil and gas sector, he would expect the industry to also come forward with innovative ways to create a better and sustainable energy future for Asia.
The remarkable growth in the use of gas in Asian economies underscored the greater role that this region was poised to play in future development of gas markets in the world.
He said the Asia-Pacific region, particularly Australia and the Middle East, had emerged as a principal source of gas supply while the Asian region, led by China and India, was also emerging as a major destination for that supply.
“Therefore, there is a natural synergy in promoting greater flow of trade, investment, skills and services, across the gas-value-chain within the Asian region,” he said while stressing the neeed for moving beyond the conventional buyer-seller relationships to a comprehensive gas and energy partnership in the region.
Such partnerships, he said, could benefit gas-endowed countries in the region from capital investments in their gas fields and also from the associated long-term purchase agreements.
Simultaneously, fast-growing emerging markets in the region could gain in terms of securing reliable supplies of gas at affordable prices.
Dr Singh said the large and growing markets in Asia also provided an opportunity for collaboration through joint research and technology development for the supply of clean and cheaper energy to the people.
He said the opening up of the oil and gas sector to private industry participation had resulted in higher domestic gas availability and led to growing participation by multinational corporations.
To cater to the large demand for gas, India had accelerated investment in creation of LNG re-gasification facilities.
With new re-gasification LNG terminals coming up at Kochi and Dabhol, India’s current import capacity of 14 million tonnes a year was set to increase to 20 million tonnes a year by 2012-13, the Prime Minister added. (UNI)