The Secretary of the Petroleum and Natural Gas Regulatory Board (PNGRB) said India could cater to as many as 300 mn domestic piped natural gas (PNG) connections using domestic production of liquefied natural gas alone. He noted that the country currently has about 11-12 mn active domestic PNG connections which together consume three million metric standard cubic metres per day. India’s present production of natural gas stands at 90 million metric standard cubic metres per day, which would permit a substantial scale up of connections if prioritised for domestic supply. The official indicated that even modest expansion targets would remain within domestic capacity.

The PNGRB and the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas are seeking to accelerate the rollout and reactivation of connections with the aim of easing pressure on liquefied petroleum gas supplies amid tensions in West Asia. Authorities are pursuing a target of 20,000 connections every day and are attempting to raise the current run rate of around 8,000-9,000 connections per day. Municipal corporations and other agencies have been asked to process permissions on a war footing to support rapid expansion.

A gazette notification dated March 24 introduced norms designed to address structural delays in approvals and to improve access to land, including provisions for deemed approvals to cut procedural lead times. City gas distributors have capital expenditure (capex) ready and were previously constrained by permission bottlenecks, which the regulators now seek to remove. The regulator assessed that faster deployment would improve project economics because higher connection counts would generate additional revenue and enable further investment.

Officials presented the accelerated push as part of an incentivised transition to piped gas intended to reduce reliance on cylinders and stabilise domestic energy supplies. The drive focuses on expediting pipeline expansion, reactivating dormant connections and ensuring that required permissions and coordination are streamlined. The anticipated outcome is a materially faster uptake of piped gas and a reduction in strain on liquefied petroleum gas distribution.