India is evaluating the option of building storage for natural gas to hedge against supply disruptions, the country’s oil secretary said on Tuesday.

Last year, India had to ration gas to fertiliser and other sectors after imports under a long-term deal with Russia took a hit due to the Ukraine war. nL4N2ZD1SA

“India would ‘probably’ need help from foreign companies for building gas storage,” the secretary,Pankaj Jain, told reporters, adding that the country had reached out to a few firms.

The modalities for building storage will be worked out after a feasibility study, he added.

“It (storage) can be in abandoned gas wells, underground storage … there are different options that we will look at,” Jain said.

India should build storage for natural gas to bolster the use of cleaner fuel in the country and hedge against global price volatility, Petroleum and Natural Gas Regulatory Board Chairman A. K. Jain said last week.

India has strategic oil reserves but lacks gas storage. Prime minister Narendra Modi has set a target of raising the share of gas in India’s energy mix to 15% by 2030 from about 6% now.
Source: Reuters (Reporting by Nidhi Verma in New Delhi; Editing by Anil D’Silva)