Gail to have 6-7 LNG stations in India by next year

Gail, India's biggest gas marketing and distribution company, has plans to establish six to seven functional LNG stations in India by next year, Sunit Verma, executive director (marketing), Gail told the NGV India Summit 2023 that is being held in New Delhi on July 20-21. These stations will be set up in cities like Nashik, Ajmer, Kanpur, and Vadodara.

“By next year we could have anywhere around six to seven LNG stations already commissioned in the country. Apart from Gail, other state-owned companies like Indian Oil Corporation and HPCL have also taken the initiative in this area,” Verma said.

Additionally, Gail will be commissioning LNG liquefaction skids in the next few months. These skids are small-scale liquefaction units capable of producing LNG and are being imported by Gail from Argentina. The company intends to venture into small-scale distributed LNG production to cater to the demand from off-grid locations and the transport sector.

“Depending on the success of these initial skids, Gail may order more LNG skids to address the needs of the transport sector,” Verma said.

India aims to expand natural gas usage in its energy mix from 6-7% today to 15% by 2030. The transportation sector will likely play an important role in driving the demand for gas.