Question : Reduction in Domestic Natural Gas Production

(a) whether there is a reduction in domestic natural gas production and increase in consumption demand;
(b) if so, the reasons for reduction in domestic natural gas production;
(c) whether the Government has prepared five-year action plan for reducing crude oil imports, increasing petroleum product exports and job creation in the sector;
(d) if so, the details thereof;
(e) whether the Government proposes to renew their focus to achieve the goal of providing clean cooking fuel to all households by the next year; and
(f) if so, the action taken by the Government to complete the mission of providing clean cooking fuel to all households by next year?

MINISTER OF PETROLEUM AND NATURAL GAS
(SHRI DHARMENDRA PRADHAN)
(a) & (b) The domestic production and consumption of natural gas in Million Metric Standard Cubic Meters (MMSCM) for the last three years is as under:
2016-17
2017-18
2018-19
Gross Domestic Production
31,897
32,649
32,873
Net production (net of flare and loss) (A)
30,848
31,731
32056
LNG import (B)
24,849
27,439
28692
Consumption (A+B)
55,697
59,170
60,748
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(c) & (d) Ministry is working in collaboration with various Central Government Ministries to achieve the goal to reduce the dependency on import from oil and gas. The five-pronged strategy, in this context, broadly comprises of increasing domestic production of oil and gas, promoting energy efficiency and conservation measures, giving thrust on demand substitution, capitalizing untapped potential in biofuels and other alternate fuels/ renewables and implementing measures for refinery process improvements.
Government has taken several steps to enhance exploration & production of oil and gas in the country which include, Discovered Small Field Policy, Hydrocarbon Exploration and Licensing Policy, Policy for Extension of Production Sharing Contracts, Policy for early monetization of Coal Bed Methane, Appraisal of Unappraised areas in Sedimentary Basins, Policy to Promote and Incentivize Enhanced Recovery Methods for Oil and Gas etc.
The Government in February, 2019 approved major reforms in exploration and licensing policy to enhance exploration activities, attract domestic and foreign investment in unexplored/unallocated areas of sedimentary basins and accelerate domestic production of oil and gas from existing fields. The policy reforms inter-alia aim to boost exploration activities with greater weightage to work programme, simplified fiscal and contractual terms, bidding of exploration blocks under Category II and III sedimentary basins without any production or revenue sharing to Government, early monetization of discoveries by extending fiscal incentives, incentivizing gas production including marketing and pricing freedom etc.
Government is also promoting the usage of environment friendly transportation fuel, i.e. CNG by expanding the coverage of City Gas Distribution (CGD) network in the country. Government has also taken a number of initiatives to encourage the use of alternative fuels like ethanol and bio-diesel through Ethanol Blending in Petrol (EBP) Programme and Bio-diesel blending in diesel. To promote use of compressed bio gas, Government has launched Sustainable Alternative Towards Affordable Transportation (SATAT) on 01.10.2018. Government has also formulated a National Bio Fuel Policy 2018 to boost availability of biofuels in country.
(e) & (f) Currently, all such poor households which don’t have LPG connection are provided with the connection under Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana (PMUY), subject to fulfillment of terms and conditions of the Scheme. So far, more than 7.30 crore connections have been released against the target of 8 crore under PMUY.
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