India’s energy mix needs a LNG boost

India’s energy mix needs a LNG boost

TOPIC: Economy

Context- Prime Minister Narendra Modi, addressing a webinar on ‘Energy for Sustainable Growth’, said that sustainable growth is possible only through sustainable energy sources.

• The government maintains that the MoPNG works in collaboration with various other Central Ministries/State governments/stakeholders to reduce import dependency on oil.

Concept-

• According to the Ministry for Petroleum and Natural Gas, the share of natural gas in the primary energy mix is envisaged to increase to 15 per cent by 2030 by boosting domestic production.
• LNG imports are under the Open General Licence category and
• Establishment of LNG infrastructure, including terminals, is also under 100 per cent FDI (automatic route).
• Also, the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways has notified LNG as a transport fuel.
• The government has been driving the initiative of setting up LNG stations across the Golden Quadrilateral, national highways, east-west highway, north-south highway and major mining clusters.
• Cross-country pipeline: At present there are no cross- country LNG pipelines.
• The Petroleum and Natural Gas Regulatory Board (PNGRB), under the PNGRB Act, 2006, has notified Technical and Safety Regulations for Natural Gas Pipelines in line with various national/international standards.
• Storage of natural gas is presently not being done by the government,
  • Indian Strategic Petroleum Reserve Ltd (ISPRL), a government of India company, has established crude oil storage facilities at three locations — Vishakhapatnam , Mangaluru and Padur (2.5 MMT) under Phase I of the Strategic Petroleum Reserves (SPR) programme.

About LNG:

• Liquefied natural gas (LNG) is natural gas (predominantly methane, CH4, with some mixture of ethane, C2H6) that has been cooled down to liquid form for storage or transport.
• LNG is odorless, colorless, non-toxic and non-corrosive.
• LNG is frozen at about -260° Fahrenheit in order to turn it into liquid form, whereas CNG is pressurized to the point where it is very compact.
• LNG takes up less storage space on a vehicle than CNG, and it also offers an energy density that can be compared to diesel fuel.
• The volume of natural gas in its liquid state is about 600 times smaller than its volume in its gaseous state in a natural gas pipeline.