GAIL will invest 30,000 crore and explore for LNG abroad in next three years

Chairman Sandeep Kumar Gupta, the largest gas company in India, GAIL (India) Ltd, expects to invest Rs 30,000 crore over the next three years as it increases petrochemical capacity and searches for LNG suppliers around the world. The foremost gas marketing and transportation company in the country is considering using liquefied natural gas (LNG) as a transportation fuel, joining Essar-supported GreenLine, which runs the biggest fleet of heavy commercial vehicles running on LNG in the country.

Gupta stated during the business's annual shareholders meeting that the corporation spent Rs 10,000 crore on capital expenditures in the 2022–23 fiscal year (April 2022–March 2023). "The business is expanding gradually and building infrastructure projects around the country. In the upcoming three years, we aim to spend Rs 30,000 crore on capital expenditures, mostly on pipelines, ongoing petrochemical projects, CGD projects, operating capital expenditures, equity contributions in group firms, etc.

GAIUL will finish over 20,000 km of the national gas grid in the upcoming year, with 15,600 km of pipes already in use and around 4,200 km of pipelines under construction. Additionally, GAIL has been granted permission to lay, erect and run the 160 km Gurdaspur-Jammu natural gas pipeline.

With this, GAIL would make it possible for the northern and north-eastern regions of the nation to obtain natural gas through the Barauni-Guwahati pipeline (BGPL), a section of the Jagdishpur-Haldia & Bokaro-Dhamra Pipeline that is 729 km long. According to Gupta, India is expected to contribute more than 10% of the additional worldwide increase in petrochemicals over the next ten years due to the country's rising petrochemical consumption. JBF Petrochemicals Ltd, a privately held chemical company, was recently acquired by GAIL, increasing its petchem capacity by 1.25 million tonnes.

"This acquisition gives GAIL the chance to expand its current product line by including pure terephthalic acid (PTA), a new chemical product. The first propane dehydrogenation PP facility in the nation is being built by your business at Usar, and another 60,000 tonnes of polypropylene are being produced at Pata, he added.