India greenlit 21 gas development projects in 2024, targeting a combined annual output of 3.5 billion cubic meters (bcm) over the medium term, according to the latest Gas Market Report by the Gas Exporting Countries Forum (GECF). During the year, over a dozen small gas fields also came online, adding around 1.8 bcm of initial production capacity, with an expected plateau of 3 bcm annually. All of these were conventional gas assets. “The new projects that reached Final Investment Decision (FID) in 2024 represent a key step in India’s upstream strategy,” GECF said. FID is the last go-ahead before a project moves into full-scale execution. India’s gas output rose 3.5 per cent in 2024 to 33.8 bcm, led by a push to boost mature field production and accelerate offshore developments. Offshore fields accounted for 71 per cent of India’s total gas output, though their share has steadily declined from 77 per cent in 2014. Associated gas — produced as a by-product of oil extraction — contributed nearly 30 per cent of the total and has remained stable over the last decade. Conventional fields dominate India’s gas production mix, contributing 93 per cent, while coal bed methane (CBM) made up 4 per cent — mainly from West Bengal — and tight gas contributed 3 per cent. India’s proven gas reserves now stand at 1.14 trillion cubic meters (tcm), down over the past five years due to a slowdown in new discoveries. However, the country holds an estimated 2.15 tcm of technically recoverable shale gas, which remains undeveloped and would require significant investment to tap. India is also emerging as a standout in adopting LNG for transport. While the country currently has fewer than 1,000 LNG trucks on the road, the government plans to convert one-third of the trucking fleet to LNG over the next 5–7 years. To support this transition, it is expanding LNG refuelling infrastructure and allocating domestic gas — which is cheaper than imported LNG — for transport use. The push is driven by India’s high oil import dependency, which now surpasses even China’s.