Role of City Gas Distribution in Indias Sustainable Energy Future India is one of the largest energy deficit countries

in world. The energy requirements in India are increasing due to the rising population and development activities resulting from strong economic growth. To fulfill its energy needs India is not only utilizing its own energy sources but also importing sources like crude oil and LNG from outside. India which imports 80 % of its crude oil requirement is once again facing the problem of rising crude oil price. Most of the oil is used in urban areas. The crude oil produced during 2009-10 was 33.69 million tonnes, while its consumption was 160.03 million tonnes1. The balance was managed through imports. During 2009-10 India imported 37.54 million metric tonnes (mmt) of crude oil and 9.34 mmt of LNG 2. The rate of growth of imported crude was consistent till 2008-09 at 9.13 % but it rose to 19.94 % in 2009-10. Also Indias import of coal during current fiscal year (2009-10) was about 67.744 million tonnes3, which could steeply jump nearly 70 % to 142 million tonnes in next fiscal year of 2011-124. This is largely because of Indias indigenous coal contains more ash content not suitable for power generation. More than half of the power requirements in India are met by steam coal. This highlights the huge energy requirement in India. Indias primary energy consumption in 2009 consisted of oil - 148.5 million tonnes of oil equivalent (mtoe), natural gas 46.7 mtoe, coal 245.8 mtoe, nuclear energy 3.8 mtoe and hydroelectric 24 mtoe. Oil and coal which have the largest share in Indias primary energy consumption with 84 %5 is actually leading to environmental degradation. This is largely because of vehicles run on petrol and diesel in urban areas. Moreover rise in crude oil prices is making the affordability to run vehicles with this fuel difficult. Also with every rise in the prices of petrol and diesel, the prices of necessary commodities are also increasing making the life of the common man difficult. Thus the two immediate challenges faced by India are to curb down its carbon intensity6 and to tackle with the rising global crude oil prices. These
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Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas http://petroleum.nic.in/petstat.pdf 3 Economic Survey 2011, Energy Infrastructure and Communication Chapter 11 4 http://in.reuters.com/article/2011/02/03/idINIndia-54617620110203 5 BP Statistical Review of World Energy, 2009 6 Carbon Intensity is the amount of carbon by weight emitted per unit of energy consumed. When there is only one fossil fuel under consideration, the carbon intensity and the emissions coefficient are identical. When there are several fuels, carbon intensity is based on combined emissions coefficient weighted by their

two challenges are areas of concerns for Indian policy makers to think more intensely towards cleaner and cheaper energy options, like natural gas and renewable energy. Natural gas is regarded as cleaner fossil fuel and ahs the natural advantage on other fuels due to its easy replacement option with petrol, diesel, coal, LPG etc. It also emits least amount of carbon dioxide among other petroleum products. One of the ways to deal with these challenges is the lay more emphasis on those important and clean fuels in the energy value chain which drives nations towards cleaner environment to live in like natural gas. Natural gas value chain is one of the important parts of energy value chain as it is through this source of energy one can faster towards sustainable energy growth. Recent developments in natural gas sector could support Indias effort of moving on this path of this sustainable growth. In this natural gas value chain7 it is the downstream part comprising of transportation and marketing where the potential of expansion lies. This downstream part is commonly known as City Gas Distribution8. The largest beneficiary of CGD will be the common man, whose livelihood would become much better, if he is able to afford his living besides living in a cleaner environment.

energy consumption levels. 7 Natural Gas Value Chain broadly includes upstream, midstream and downstream. Under upstream exploration and production of natural gas is done, in midstream processing of natural gas is done where water, impurities and hydrocarbons are removed to make it ready to be send to market, through pipelines and tankers and thereafter distributing and selling the same through city gas distribution pipelines in the form of piped natural gas for domestic, commercial and industrial use and compressed natural gas for vehicles. This last part of transportation and marketing of gas falls under downstream activity. 8 City Gas Distribution is a network of inter-connected underground gas pipelines and the associated equipment used for importing gas from main transmission pipelines to the service pipelines supplying to domestic, commercial and industrial users with a single city area.