LNG regulations drive up costs, defer India's gas economy ambitions

Experts question need for Petroleum & Natural Gas Regulatory Board to mandate registration of LNG import terminals

India’s new regulations for the $15 billion LNG import business couldn’t have come at a worse time for India’s LNG stalwarts like state-run Petronet LNG, Shell, Adan-Total, Indian Oil, and Hindustan Petroleum.

 

For an industry, which, like the software sector, has grown relatively unsupervised for the last two decades, the fresh regulatory oversight adds costs and delays to adding LNG import capacity at a time when imports of the fuel are declining. LNG imports, which account for half of India's gas use, are expected to play a key role in India, which plans to more than double the share of