India's natural gas consumption rose by only 1.5% in 2018-2019 (i.e. over the April 2018-March 2019 period), due to higher international gas prices. According to India's Oil Ministry, 53.05 bcm/year of gas were available for sale in 2018-2019, up from 52.25 bcm/year in 2017-2018. Domestic gas availability slightly increased (+0.4%) to 26 bcm, while LNG imports rose by 2.6% during the year, accounting for 51% of total gas consumption.
India aims to raise the share of natural gas in the energy mix from the current 6% to 15% by 2030, and the downstream regulator recently awarded city gas licenses for 136 geographical areas in order to raise piped gas coverage from 20% to 70% of the country’s population. Coal-to-gas substitutions in the power sector - a potential heavy consumer of gas - remain slow, as the power sector prefer cheaper electricity produced from coal to expensive LNG imports. Gas consumption could increase in 2019-2020 as a new fertiliser plant will be opened (no production capacity increase in 2018-2019).