Natural gas output to rise 50% by 2018-19

India's natural gas output is likely to rise by 50 per cent to 146.87 million standard cubic meters per day by 2018-19 on account of higher production from ONGC fields, Oil Ministry has said.
In its annual report, the ministry has said domestic gas production will rise from 98.15 mmscmd in 2014-15 to 99.87 mmscmd in the current fiscal.
In 2016-17, the output will climb to 112.95 mmscmd and finally to 146.87 mmscmd in 2018-19. Bulk of the incremental output will come from state-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) which will see production rise to 65.75 mmsmd in 2014-15 to 96.38 mmscmd.

ONGC production will include 4.66 mmscmd from New Exploration Licensing Policy (NELP) block KG-DWN-98/2 or KG-D5 in 2017-18 and 12.05 mmsmcd in 2018-19.
State-owned Oil India Ltd will see gas production rise from 7.78 mmscmd last fiscal to 10.96 mmscmd in four years.
The ministry said output from fields operated by private firms like Reliance Industries is projected to rise from 24.62 mmscmd in 2014-15 to 39.53 mmscmd in 2018-19.

Demand, on the other hand, is projected to increase by nearly 30 per cent to 523 mmscmd in 2018-19 from 405 mmscmd in 2014-15. Gas demand is expected to climb 10 per cent in the current fiscal to 446 mmscmd.

India is world's fourth largest energy consumer with oil and gas constituting about 37.24 per cent of primary energy consumption. "The world average primary energy consumption growth rate (CACR) for 2000-2013 has been 2.41 per cent, as compared to Asia Pacific's rate of 5.39 per cent and India's rate of 5.52 per cent," the report said.
Against world average of 2.55 per cent growth rate in natural gas, India's CAGR is 5.26 per cent.
"The demand is further set to rise on the back of segments such as power, city gas distribution and industrial users. A healthy demand from the users is necessitating higher imports as well as investment in supporting infrastructure," it said.

Liquefied natural gas (LNG) imports into the country and development of downstream markets to ensure offtake will remain at the core of the changes in the natural gas sector in the near future, the report said.
The government has taken several steps to enhance the availability of gas in the country, including intensification of domestic exploration and production activities, development of shale gas policy framework, import of LNG, exploration in the Mining Lease Area with certain conditions and acquisition of overseas oil and gas assets, it said.