'India can produce 62 MMT of CBG'

India can produce 62 million tonnes of compressed bio gas (CBG) that will be sufficient enough to replace entire demand for gas, Vijay Sharma, Director in the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, said Saturday.

"If total potential of CBG is exploited in the country, India can produce approximately 62 million tonnes equivalent of CBG annually which is sufficient to replace the entire gas demand of the nation," Sharma said here while addressing a gathering.

Sharma pointed out that CBG has multiple benefits such as waste management, reduction in carbon emissions, additional revenue source for farmers, boost to entrepreneurship and rural economy by the way of generating employment opportunities.

Sharma emphasised that promoting CBG in the transport sector would isolate economy from fluctuating crude oil and gas price.

He said CBG is produced from waste sources like agriculture residue, cattle dung, sugarcane press mud, municipal solid waste, sewage treatment plant waste.

After purification, it is compressed and CBG which has high methane content.

On this occasion, S Jeyakrishnan, Director-Marketing, Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd, said oil marketing companies were committed to support the nation with indigenous fuel production and reduce its import dependency.

"Thus, OMCs have come up with remunerative price for CBG suppliers to ensure attractiveness of the SATAT (sustainable alternative towards affordable transportation) initiative and devise alternative means to support fuel requirement for Indian transport sector," he said.

Public Sector Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs) IOCL, BPCL and HPCL Saturday organized a road show in order to create awareness about SATAT.

SATAT is aimed to establish 5,000 CBG plants across the country with an estimated CBG production of 15 MMT/annum by 2023.