Maharashtra must lobby for fair share of gas: Panel

The Maharashtra government should lobby with the Centre for a fair share of the gas in the Krishna Godavari basin and Panna-Mukta and Tapti consortium and other sources, as there will be tremendous competition from other states for gas, especially industrially developed states like Tamilnadu, Andhra Pradesh, Gujrat etc, the state-level committee on natural gas policy has said.

The committee has pegged Maharashtra's demand over the next few years at 50 million metric standard cubic meter per day (MMSCMPD).

The state government had set up a committee under the chairmanship of former IPCL chairman Hasmukh Shah to advise the state on its natural gas policy. The committee submitted its final report to Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh today.

The committee also said that some of the provisions of the Petroleum and Natural Gas Regulatory Bill were not in the state's interest like provisions on the inter-state pipelines and city gas distribution network.

This aspect should be vested either with the state government or the state-level regulator and not with the Central regulator. The committee has asked the state government to make efforts to inform the Centre about the concerns of the state government.

The committee is also critical about the Centre's approach towards the Bill, as it had not consulted the state government after the draft was revised extensively in 2005.

The central regulator giving permission to city gas distribution network or interstate gas lines will only consider parameters like viability, but the state has objectives like development of backward regions and these will not be fulfilled through this Bill.

The committee also recommends that the Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation (MIDC) should undertake distribution of gas in areas like Pune and Nashik and with lot of spade work done by MIDC already, it should apply to the ministry of petroleum and natural gas for setting up a gas distribution network.

However MIDC should do this in partnership with some private player and it should have 26 per cent stake in the JV in lieu of doing work like obtaining the right of use (RoU) clearances and permission from the scenario government etc.

The committee has suggested that state governments encourage MIDC and private players to set up gas distribution networks in backward regions of Marathwada and Vidarbha as it will help the state attract the industry in this region.

The committee has also asked the state government to consider setting up the exclusive petroleum university close to Mumbai which will offer courses in geology studies, geo-hydrology, reservoir studies, deep water exploration, dredging and drilling technology, oil economics and international relations etc as the oil and gas industry is going to create 2 lakh jobs in the near future and it wants trained hands in these areas.

The availability of the gas will help the state government fulfill its target of generating 2,240 Mw power through gas-based projects over the next 10 years, the committee said. It also asked the government to take steps for distributed gas power generation (DGP) as it reduces transfer and distribution losses substantially.

The committee has also suggested that the state government pursue the central government for early completion of Dahej-Uran pipeline and completion and expansion of the LNG terminal at Dabhol.

The committee wants the state government to promote the use of CNG and LPG as a fuel for vehicles especially public transport vehicles and state government should take initiative making available soft loans to all those who want to convert their vehicles from diesel or petrol to gasbased vehicles.