The downstream regulator has identified expanding the reach of natural gas, accelerating the shift of petroleum products from road and rail to pipelines, and promoting transparency and competition in petroleum and gas infrastructure among its priorities in its action plan for this financial year. The regulator describes its annual action plan as a “comprehensive roadmap of strategic priorities, regulatory commitments, and institutional vision for the year ahead”.
“Enable competition and infusion of capex through third parties in the geographical areas where pipeline and infrastructure exclusivity has expired,” the regulator said in the action plan. It also aims to “improve visibility of infrastructure capacity, unbundling of functions, and creation of an independent Transmission System Operator (TSO)”.
Ending the exclusivity of city gas distributors and unbundling gas transmission and marketing have long been among the regulator’s most complex challenges, with affected parties often stalling its efforts through litigation.
India has also been considering setting up an independent transmission system operator to ensure non-discriminatory third-party access to pipelines, but has made little progress.
This year, PNGRB plans to review the natural gas pipeline authorisation regulations to “assess capex-based bidding”. It also plans to revise the city gas authorisation regulations to enable connectivity between city gas distributors and facilitate infrastructure sharing.
The regulator also plans to build support for city gas policies across states and promote liquefied petroleum gas-free zones to stimulate demand for piped natural gas.It also aims to enable trading of compressed biogas and booking of capacity at regasified liquefied natural gas terminals on the gas exchange.
The launch of an integrated digital PNGRB consumer portal is also on the agenda to facilitate the registration, tracking and resolution of consumer grievances.