To provide a platform for stakeholders in the Gas industry to discuss the road ahead for building Gas infrastructure to meet the galloping demand in India, PetroFed organised, in association with member company and knowledge partner, PwC, a roundtable on April 28, 2006 at New Delhi.

Inaugurating the roundtable, Sh. S. Behuria, Chairman, IndianOil and Chairman, PetroFed stressed on the imperative need to rapidly develop India 's natural gas resources to fuel the country's ambitious, but achievable, high growth plans. Natural Gas infrastructure development in India , he said, is at a nascent stage. It requires large investments, careful planning, conducive environment and a stable long term fiscal and regulatory system including affordable price. Sh. Behuria hoped that the Government will have more intense interaction with stakeholders before the finer regulatory aspects of the Petroleum and Natural Gas Regulatory Act are concretised (full text on website ).

Welcoming the distinguished invitees, including Adviser (Energy) Planning Commission, Sh. S.P. Sethi and Director, Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas, Sh. A.K. Jain, and nearly four score industry captains and senior representatives, Director General, PetroFed, Sh. A.K. Arora, highlighted on a robust, reliable, flexible and expandable gas infrastructure since it serves for decades and transcends generations. This Roundtable, he said was a sequel to the ‘Tax Fulcrum for Gas Business' organised by PetroFed two years ago when India's first LNG terminal was ready.

The tone for the Roundtable was set by a presentation on ‘Gas demand and supply, market and infrastructure' by Sh. Deepak Mahurkar, Associate Director, PwC. An overview on ‘Gas Regulations and Pricing' was provided by Sh. J.P. Rai, Advisor, PwC. The fiscal regime for gas infrastructure development was dealt in detail by Sh. S. Madhavan and Sh. Rahul Garg, Executive Directors, PwC. The former covered the Indirect Tax aspect while the latter dwelt on the Direct Tax aspects.

Thereafter, there were presentations by key industry members highlighting issues of concern. Sh. R.P. Sharma , President – Gas Business, RIL presented the RIL view point. Sh. Anindya Chowdhury, Chief Adviser (Strategy) presented on behalf of Shell India Pvt. Ltd. The British Gas presentation was by Mr. George Tilley, Project Director (Transmission and Distribution). The GAIL presentation was by Sh. A.K. Ray, ED (Corp. Planning). On behalf of Petronet LNG Ltd., Dr. S.C. Sharma, Chief Commercial Officer made a presentation (all presentations on website) .

The highly interactive panel discussion that followed debated various issues of concern. The discussion was chaired and moderated by Sh. R.P. Sharma, President (Gas Business) RIL with active participation, among others, by Sh. M.S. Ramachandran, Chairman, BHP Billiton and former Chairman, IndianOil, Shri R.C. Mahajan, Jt. Adviser (Pet), Planning Commission, Sh. B.K. Saha, Director General, Fertiliser Association of India, Mr. Larry Fisher, VP and Country Chairman, Niko, Dr. Mick Jackson, Country Manager, Premier Oil, Sh. P.K. Agarwal, Secretary General, TERI, Sh. P.P. Bagchi, former ED, OCC, Sh. A.P. Verghese, GM-IOC.

It was decided at the end of the Roundtable that PetroFed would circulate to all companies the key regulatory issues and the challenges involved for developing gas infrastructure in India within a week. All companies in the public and private sector will forward their response within another one week thereafter. PetroFed would then develop a consensual approach paper on the same, maintaining confidentiality of responses, for submission to Government on the same lines as the paper on NELP submitted last year.

The Roundtable concluded with a vote of thanks on behalf of PetroFed and PwC by Sh. Y. Sahai, Director (Comm. & Mktg.) PetroFed.

Click here to view presentation & inaugural speech. (right click Save As...)