Natural Gas Market in India: Evolution and Future Scenarios

Abstract

Indian natural gas markets have in the last two decades expanded rapidly in the wake of increased domestic production and gas imports since 2004. Regulatory reforms in the upstream gas markets since 1994 helped in augmenting domestic production. In next twenty years, under a range of energy scenarios, the gas market can be expected to grow faster than coal and oil. This scenario throws up numerous related questions, such as : which sectors would account for this growth, what it would mean for investments, and, how would high oil prices, coal market reforms, climate policy, local environmental policies and geopolitics affect the fast market?