India's success story in setting up CNG city gas projects in its major towns and cities is being replicated globally by the oil and gas rich countries.
After successfully setting up city gas distribution projects, state-controlled GAIL India Ltd with its joint venture company Indraprastha Gas Ltd (IGL) is planning inroads into Qatar, which is supplying huge quantities of gas to India every year, for a similar venture.
The city gas distribution (CGD) projects includes both piped natural gas (PNG) - gas reaching households - and compressed natural gas (CNG), auto gas sold at pumps.
"We have sought details of locations as also price details of gas that will be made available by Qatar for this project," a senior GAIL official said.
A leader in city gas distribution in India, GAIL has three joint venture companies running in Egypt and one in Beijing. The company has established its presence in the CNG and City Gas arenas in Egypt through equity participation in Fayum Gas, Shell CNG and Natgas and has acquired a stake in
{{/usCountry}}A leader in city gas distribution in India, GAIL has three joint venture companies running in Egypt and one in Beijing. The company has established its presence in the CNG and City Gas arenas in Egypt through equity participation in Fayum Gas, Shell CNG and Natgas and has acquired a stake in
{{/usCountry}}China Gas Holding to pursue CNG opportunities in mainland China.
"GAIL plans to develop City Gas markets worldwide in collaboration with global oil and gas majors," the official said.
On the home front, GAIL plans to expand the CGD business and will invest returns from the operational CGD projects into new projects thus reducing the need for fresh equity infusions.
Gas supplied by GAIL to retail gas distributors in the country serves more than 600,000 automobiles as CNG and over 650,000 households as PNG.