PIPED NATURAL GAS TO REACH MORE THAN 200 CITIES BY 2015: MURLI DEORA New Delhi: November 15,

2010 Terming Natural Gas as a fuel of the 21st Natural Gas Minister Shri Murli Deora has said that the piped natural gas would reach more than 200 cities by 2015. Delivering the inaugural speech at the All India LPG Distributors Federation Silver Jubilee conference and exhibition in Mumbai this morning, Shri Deora said, with expansion of natural gas distribution network in cities, it would be possible to give more LPG to rural areas. Both public and private sector companies are expanding its existing infrastructure. GAIL alone is expanding its existing pipeline of 7,000 km to 12,000 km in next 5 years. With expansion of natural gas distribution in urban and semi-urban areas, more LPG will be available for distribution in rural areas so as to achieve the target under Rajiv Gandhi Gramin LPG Vitran Yojana, the minister said. Shri Deora said that the Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs) had introduced a number of measures to improve customer services. The launch of common toll free number for all the 3 public sector OMCs for all customer complaints and Short Messaging Services (SMS) / Integrated Voice Response System (IVRS) facility for LPG refill booking for Delhi based customers is yet another step towards improving the customer care services. This will provide better interface between customers and the dealers / distributors of petroleum products, he said. He however, asked the LPG distributors to take necessary steps to control the menace of diversion and black marketing of LPG across the country. There are reports of diversion and black marketing of LPG across the country. This defeats the very purpose of providing huge subsidy which is otherwise mis-utilized by the unscrupulous elements. Therefore, we have to devise new techniques and distribution methods to prevent the same. Oil Marketing Companies, on their part, have taken several steps, including putting in place requisite regulatory framework like LPG Control Order, Marketing Discipline Guidelines, etc. to prevent this menace. However, I will urge LPG distributor fraternity to take appropriate steps to supplement the efforts of the Government and OMCs to tackle this problem, Shri Deora said. The Petroleum minister said that though the foreign exchange outgo on account of import of crude oil was going to increase with rising demand, the same was being compensated by export of refined petroleum product, which was the largest foreign exchange earner for the country. It is a matter of pride for our Oil Industry that India exported 51 million tonnes of refined petroleum products during 2009-10 valued at $ 30 billion, making petroleum products the largest foreign exchange earner in the merchandized category. The supply of petroleum products would further get a boost with commissioning of three grass root refineries coming up at Bina, Bhatinda and Paradip in the next two years, increasing the refining capacity from 185 million tonnes today to around 240 million tonnes by 2012, Shri Deora said. Earlier, in his speech, the Petroleum & Natural Gas Secretary, Shri S. Sunderashan said that the government was hoping for a rationalization of LPG prices the future so that there could be a reasonable profit for OMCs. Moreover, he said government would ensure that the commissions of LPG distributors were revised regularly. It is estimated that for 2010-11, Government would be incurring a total under-recoveries of around Rs.59,000 crore on essential petroleum products out of which Rs.18,000 crore is only on LPG.