The Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas has ordered the diversion of natural gas from industries to the city gas distribution sector. This has been done to curb the increasing compressed natural gas (CNG) and piped cooking gas prices that have shot up by 70 per cent on the use of imported fuel.
Following the old policy of primarily supplying domestically produced gas for city gas operations, the allocation for city gas operators like Indraprastha Gas Limited in Delhi and Mahanagar Gas Limited of Mumbai has been increased from 17.5 million standard cubic meters per day to 20.78 mmscmd. The increased allocation will meet 94 per cent of the demand for CNG to automobiles and piped cooking gas to household kitchens in the country. Earlier, nearly 83-84 per cent of the demand was met and the remaining was met through the import of liquified natural gas by GAIL.