ONGC Sees Jump in Indian Gas Demand

India’s state owned energy firm ONGC feels that there is a big demand for LNG in the Indian market and has drawn a roadmap under Perspective 2030 Plan for the next 18 years.

In an interview to The Hindu newspaper, company’s Chairman and Managing Director Sudhir Vasudeva said that ONGC was to enter the LNG sourcing and marketing business.

The company has associated itself with the Japan-based Mitsui Group, which will be handling the entire value-chain of the LNG business for the company.

On the topic of coal bed methane, he said there are many issues, including land acquisition and simultaneous production of coal and CBM from these fields. “Therefore, we decided that somebody who can manage this kind of environment should take over from us,” he told the newspaper.

“We started with the idea that people who are already operating should take over, including players like Essar. This was not seen in the right perspective by the Petroleum and Natural Gas Ministry which asked us to go in for global ICD. We will retain the majority share in the assets but we want to complement the efforts with that of our partners,” he said.

Talking about ONGC’s plan to ramp up overall gas output, he said that the company plans to raise natural gas production by over 7.22 million standard cubic metres per day (mmscmd) in the next two years to meet the energy requirements. The incremental output in 2012-13 would be 1.45 mmscmd and a substantial 5.77 mmscmd would come in 2013-14.

ONGC at present produces about 55 mmscmd of gas.