The Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas has been allocated Rs 159.44 billion in fiscal year (FY) 2021-22. The allocation to the Ministry has decreased by an annual average rate of 39 per cent over 2019-20. The Ministry has prioritised increasing the share of natural gas in the country’s energy mix to at least 20-25 per cent by 2025. In a bid to increase the share of natural gas, the Union Finance Ministry announced a pipeline project for Jammu and Kashmir. As of September 2020, the total authorised length of natural gas pipelines stood at 32,559 km of which 15,543 km was under construction. The budgetary allocations of FY 21 and FY 22 contain various initiatives to increase the use of natural gas such as expansion of the national gas grid from 16,200 km to 27,000 km, addition of 100 districts to the city gas distribution (CGD) network and setting up an independent gas transport system operator to facilitate booking of common carrier capacity in natural gas pipelines.
The analysis by PRS Research on the demand for grants during 2021-22 in the Petroleum and Natural Gas sector reviews the budgetary allocation to the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, the progress of various central level schemes and the Union Government’s increased focus on increasing the CGD network in the country to cover various untapped regions.