New Delhi: As domestic production of natural gas rises, India's import dependency on LNG has gone down by 3 percent year-on-year in the April-October period of 2022. According to a note shared by the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas with the Cabinet, "Import dependency in case of natural gas also improved from 49.5 percent during April-October 2021 to 46.3 percent during April-October 2022."
India imported 16,876 MMSCM of LNG during April-October 2022 as compared to LNG imports of 19,003 MMSCM @US$ 7.0 billion during the April-October 2021 period, said the note.
Natural gas production during November was 2,849 MMSCM, showing 97 percent achievement over the target 2,938 MMSCM for the month and 99.3 percent achievement over the production of 2,869 MMSCM in the corresponding month of the last year.
During the ongoing Winter Session of Parliament, Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas Hardeep Singh Puri told the Lok Sabha in a written response, "India's import dependency based on consumption for natural gas has decreased from 48.2 percent in Financial Year 2021-22 to 46.3 percent in Financial Year 2022-23 (April to October). Government has taken multiple steps/launched various policy initiatives to increase domestic production of natural gas and adopted strategies for promotion of biofuels. These, inter-alia,
include support for compressed Biogas, National Gas Grid for pipeline infrastructure, City Gas distribution Networks and LNG regasification terminals are being developed to ensure availability of gas to all demand centres."
Import dependency in case of crude oil during April-October 2022 was 86.6 percent as compared to 84.9 percent during the corresponding period of the last year, the ministry told the Cabinet.
"India imported 133.7 MMT of crude oil for US$ 101.2 billion during April-October 2022 as compared to an import of 118.5 MMT for US$ 61.1 billion during April to October 2021," it said.
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