GAIL India Ltd, a state-owned company, is exploring expansion in petrochemicals, speciality chemicals, and renewables as part of a new strategy to diversify its business beyond natural gas, according to its chairman Manoj Jain.
To define its journey during the next decade, the nation’s leading gas marketer and the shipper have adopted a new future strategy called ‘Strategy 2030.’
“This strategic plan will help us to address our challenges in changing industry scenarios and provide new areas for growth with geographic expansion,” he told PTI in an interview. GAIL’s 13,340-kilometer network of natural gas trunk pipelines delivers more than 70% of the gas shipped in the country.
It sells 55% of all-natural gas in the country and controls 17.5 percent of the market with petrochemical factories in Pata, Uttar Pradesh, and Lepatkata, Assam.
By 2023-24, the company plans to convert an existing LPG plant in Usar, Maharashtra’s Raigad district, into a 500,000-tonne-per-annum polypropylene complex, with an estimated investment of Rs 8,800 crore.
The company will look into petrochemicals opportunities to meet future demand for polyethene and polypropylene. “We are also assessing opportunities for certain speciality chemicals in India,” he said.
GAIL now has a small portfolio of 120 MW of wind and solar power generation capacity, which it wants to expand to 1 GW in the next 3-4 years for an investment of Rs 4,000 crore.
“While gas will remain our core segment, we will look for growth in other areas such as petrochemicals, speciality chemicals, renewables, water, etc to reach new heights in coming years.
This with a view to building a strong business portfolio and organizational structure which is not only robust enough to respond to the fast-changing business scenario but also unlocks growth opportunities for the long-term growth of the company.
GAIL is spending Rs 32,000 crore to lay critical portions of the National Gas Grid, totalling around 7,500 kilometres of lines, largely in the country’s east.
The company is in talks with city gas licence holders about setting up LNG dispensing stations on National Highways to supply long-haul trucks and buses with fuel. It is also constructing compressed biogas plants to convert municipal trash into a gas that may be used as a fuel (CNG) in cars and in homes for cooking.
It also intends to build ethanol plants that will turn agricultural waste or sugarcane into a cleaner fuel that can be mixed with gasoline, reducing India’s reliance on imports, he said.
While the renewable energy push will cost Rs 4,000 crore, he estimates that putting up at least two compressed biogas plants and an ethanol factory will cost Rs 800-1,000 crore.
India is boosting up efforts to investigate new kinds of energy to clean up the skies and reduce reliance on foreign fuels since it imports 85 percent of its crude oil needs.
GAIL is building its first compressed biogas (CBG) facility in Ranchi, according to Jain, at a cost of Rs 200-300 crore. Using municipal garbage, the facility will produce five tonnes of CBG per day and around 25 tonnes of bio-manure.
“The gas produced will be fed into the city gas network supplying CNG to automobiles and piped natural gas to households. This will help reduce pollution,” he said.
