The Business Bytes
TBB BUREAU
NEW DELHI, AUGUST 27, 2022
AG&P City Gas, one of the largest private energy players in India, operating under the brand name AG&P Pratham launched its 201st Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) station and 4th LCNG station in Hebbal, Mysuru. AG&P Pratham has developed about 150 CNG stations in the last 7 months, at a pace of almost five CNG stations every week.
Union Minister for Petroleum & Natural Gas and Housing & Urban Affairs Hardeep Singh Puri inaugurated the CNG and LCNG stations in an online ceremony.
Speaking after virtually inaugurating AG&P Pratham’s 201st CNG Station, Minister Hardeep Singh Puri congratulated AG&P Pratham for the expansion of CNG stations and LCNG stations in the Country. “India is committed to continuously improve the policy and regulatory environment to support the development and make cleaner and sustainable fuel accessible and available to public at large,” the Minister said, adding that in last 8 years, CNG stations in the country have gone up from 938 in 2014 to 4629, and number is likely to go up to 8000. The PNG connections have increased by 4 times to almost 1 crore while CGD network has increased 9 times to cover 630 districts, he informed.
The Minister further said that the government means business, and the use of gas in the energy basket of the country will go upto 15%, and CGD network will cater to almost 90% of the consumers.
Puri said that under the current global situation, production and availability of Gas and Crude is a challenge but India has been ensuring the energy security, along with energy affordability and availability. The increase in domestic gas prices is fraction of the price rise at Henry Hub, and other places, he added. This has been possible due to Government taking variety of measures to cushion the impact on domestic consumers.
Abhilesh Gupta, Managing Director and CEO, AG&P Pratham said, “The launch of our 201st CNG station is a significant milestone for us. We have commissioned 150 CNG stations in the last 7 months. We are equally focused on providing domestic connections and have already built Domestic Piped Natural Gas (DPNG) infrastructure for 62,000 households. Within FY23, we will create the DPNG infrastructure for 3.36 lakh households. Our target is to setup 1500 CNG stations, lay 17,000 inch-kms of steel pipeline and connect 2.5 million households in the coming years. We are all working very hard to provide access to natural gas as a principal fuel source and usher in a natural gas-based economy.”
AG&P Pratham has authorizations to develop CGD networks across 12 Geographical Areas covering 34 districts across 8% of India and 64 million people in the states of Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Kerala. In its twelve Geographical Areas, AG&P Pratham is developing and operating CNG stations for vehicles, piped natural gas to homes, industries and commercial establishments. AG&P Pratham has recently won the India 2022 ‘Energy Company of the Year’ at ‘The Economic Times Energy Leadership Awards’.
