Shell seeks gas converts among Indian textile, cement plants

Royal Dutch Shell is turning to India’s textile, cement and steel factories as it seeks to expand demand for its natural gas.
 

The Hague-based energy giant has set up a team of about six executives to identify small businesses that use dirtier fuels like coal and convince them to switch, according to Ajay Shah, vice-president with the company’s Asia unit. Shell, which will import the fuel as liquefied natural gas, is betting these users will account for a significant part of India’s gas demand growth, which it estimates will expand fivefold in 15 years.

“Historically, we have targeted big customers, wholesale style,” Shah said in an interview on June 21 in New Delhi. 

“Now is the time of having more relations with the end customer. There is a significant market opportunity.”

The push deeper toward small, industrial users comes as Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government promotes gas to curb dirtier alternatives such as pet coke and furnace oil and seeks to slash emissions by a third by 2030.

Bloomberg