Gas supply to fall short by 49%

The country may face a gas supply crunch of around 154 million standard cubic metre per day (mscmd) in 2011-12 as supply could fall far short of demand. Supply at 159 mscmd is expected to be 49.2 per cent of the projected 313 mscmd demand.

These projections came up at a presentation by the ministry of petroleum and natural gas to the parliamentary consultative committee meeting on the oil and gas sector.

"We are expecting gas availability at around 105 mscmd from domestic sources and around 54 mscmd from overseas in 2011-12," a ministry official told Business Standard.

Of the domestic sources, around 30 mscmd is expected to come from ONGC, 8 mscmd from Oil India and 67 mscmd from joint ventures and the private sector. Of the overseas gas, 27 mscmd is expected from Qatar, 18 mscmd from Iran and 9 mscmd from Shell.

The country's demand for gas in 2006-07 is pegged at around 231 mscmd and expected to rise by nearly 70 per cent to 391 mscmd in 2024-25.

In 2005-06, the country had around 93 mscmd of gas available, of which 75 mscmd was sourced from domestic sources with the remaining 18 mscmd obtained from overseas.

"While ONGC contributed 51 mscmd, OIL contributed 4 mscmd with 20 mscmd coming from joint ventures and private players in 2005-06," the official said.

In another development, the oil ministry has clarified that the price revision for gas produced from fields with ONGC and OIL on nomination has not had an impact on consumers.