Domestic natural gas production declines 15.9% during 9M-FY21

Domestic natural gas production has declined sharply by 15.9% during 9M-FY21 compared with the 1.9% increase registered during 9M-FY20. Cumulative fall in production is mainly due to restricted gas off take by consumers amid the ongoing COVID-19 situation.

Imports of natural gas in the form of LNG increased by 0.7%, reversing the negative trend since the start of the financial year. Import dependency based on consumption has increased to 54.8% during 9M-FY21 compared with 51.5% during 9M-FY20. India has imported LNG from Qatar, Nigeria, UAE and Nigeria.

Consumption of natural gas fell by 5.3% on a y-o-y basis during 9M-FY21. Natural gas is used as a fuel (energy) and as a feedstock (non-energy) by the respective end user industries.

336 CNG refuelling stations were added across the country during April-November 2020. Gujarat led with 73 new stations.

PNG connections increased by 16.5% during April-November 2020. There were 61.09 lakh connections in the start of the fiscal.

Shivani Sharma, Pragati Srivastava