Oil regulator to penalise gas companies for failing to meet household demand

economictimes.indiatimes.com:

Petroleum and Natural Gas Regulatory Board (PNGRB) and it will soon «come down heavily» on city gas companies failing to meet households' demand for new connections or supplies, its chairman said. Policy intervention is needed to dissuade companies from promoting more profitable compressed natural gas (CNG) at the cost of household connections, Anil Kumar Jain added.

«It's reported that in many cases the city gas distribution (CGD) licensees have been remiss in providing connectivity.

In many cases, connections have been provided but gas flow has not been initiated,» Jain told ET in an interview. «I'm looking into that, and we will soon be coming down heavily on CGD licensees.»

Jain, a former coal secretary who joined the downstream regulator in May, has a Ph.D in natural gas.

He said the regulator will work towards the wider adoption of natural gas and involve consumers in decision-making through car fleet owners and residents' welfare associations. The PNGRB Act, which hasn't undergone any change since enactment in 2006, also needs to evolve with the times for better regulation, Jain said.

CGD companies need to focus on piped natural gas (PNG) meant for homes, Jain said. «PNG is not receiving adequate interest from the CGD players because they are not bound to reserve a certain specified share of the cheap gas for this sector and the return on per unit of gas sold is higher in the CNG sector.

So, there is a tendency to promote CNG at the cost of PNG,» said Jain, adding that a policy intervention was needed to boost household PNG connections, which are currently just a little more than 10 million, compared with LPG connections of more than 300 million. «Some kind of a tinkering or a thinking through that this