Industry members, at a meeting convened by PetroFed on June 13, 2006, deliberated on suggestions to be made to Government on Gas regulatory issues.  Industry members also agreed that PetroFed should respond to Government on the Policy for Development of Natural Gas Transmission Pipelines and City or Local Natural Gas Distribution Network circulated by MoP&NG and discussed at a meeting in the Ministry on June 2, 2006.  To enable a prompt response before the next MoP&NG meeting scheduled on June 28, 2006, industry members agreed to submit their responses / suggestions on the draft policy by June 19, 2006.

The regulatory issues for being recommended to Government were the result a Roundtable organized by PetroFed on April 28, 2006 in association with member company and knowledge partner PricewaterhouseCoopers.  It had been decided at the Roundtable that in view of enactment of the Petroleum and Natural Gas Regulatory Board Act 2006, PetroFed should proactively seek industry response confidentially and submit suggestions to Government for consideration by the Regulatory Board.  In accordance with this decision a questionnaire was circulated to all companies in the public and private sector on May 5, 2006 with the assurance that the responses will be treated as strictly confidential.

M/s PricewaterhouseCoopers analysed the responses and through secondary research also took on board international experiences of 17 countries as well as learnings as summarised by agencies like the World Bank, Asian Development Bank, and the International Energy Agency.

The final suggestions on the Regulatory issues will be sent to Government.

The responses on the draft Pipeline Policy will also be sent to Government before the MoP&NG scheduled meeting on June 28, 2006