India to see Rs 5 trn investment in oil and gas sector: Dharmendra Pradhan

Minister sees domestic natural gas output rising by 20% to 39.3 billion cubic metres by 2020-21.

Petroleum minister Dharmendra Pradhan said on Monday that the country’s oil and gas sector is at present seeing investments worth around Rs 5 trillion in exploration, distribution, marketing, regasification, pipeline network laying.

Through the recent policy push on exploration sector, the minister expects the domestic natural gas production to increase by around 20 per cent from 32.87 billion cubic metres (bcm) in 2018-19 to 39.3 bcm by 2020-21. With consumption too on upward trend and new city gas distribution (CGD) networks coming on stream, investments are set to come in liquefied natural gas (LNG) with the capacity to be augmented