GAIL in two minds over govt's plan to split gas pipeline business

The government plans to unbundle the pipeline company into two to avoid conflict-of-interest issues but the state-owned major wants to retain control of both businesses

The primary job of GAIL is to lay gas infrastructure, marketing can be done by anyone.

When Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan stated this in early 2018, he was echoing a decade-old question that many industry experts had been asking. Is there a conflict of interest in the gas sector when the same entity that is responsible for transporting natural gas via a national pipeline grid should also be responsible for marketing it?

The Narendra Modi government is likely to inch closer to a plan to unbundle the gas transmission and marketing business of GAIL by the end of this financial year. The