Compressed Biogas (CBG), Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) to drive India's gas sector growth in the next five years, says IGL's Sanjeev Bhatia

City gas companies expect compressed biogas (CBG) and liquefied natural gas (LNG) to drive India’s gas sector growth over the next five to 10 years. At the PHDCCI Global Summit on Sustainability 2025, Indraprastha Gas Limited (IGL) Executive Director, Mr. Sanjeev Bhatia, said India aims to increase natural gas’s share in the energy mix from 6.5% to 15% by 2030, but domestic production is lagging, making CBG critical. The government has already mandated city gas distributors to invest in CBG plants, with IGL tasked to set up at least 10 units, including one at Narela, Delhi, expected to start in October 2025 and produce four tonnes of gas daily from municipal waste. On LNG, he highlighted the significant potential in the transport sector, where India has just 700 LNG trucks compared to China’s six lakh, stressing that even partial adoption could cut pollution by 30%.

To address infrastructure challenges, IGL and other companies plan to install 50 LNG stations along the Golden Quadrilateral and push cement, steel, and fertiliser sectors to convert 10-20% of fleets. He noted that CBG and LNG are natural extensions of compressed natural gas (CNG), unlike hydrogen blending, which remains commercially unviable. At the same event, International Solar Alliance Director General, Mr. Ashish Khanna, credited India’s policy support and private sector capacity for making it the only G20 nation to achieve 50% renewable energy capacity ahead of schedule, with 116 GW of solar installed. 

Disclaimer: This information has been collected through secondary research and IBEF is not responsible for any errors in the same.