20 AUTO LPG DISPENSING STATIONS COMMISSIONED:
GANGWAR
WORKSHOP HELD TO FAMILIARISE
CONSULTATIVE COMMITTEE MEMBERS ATTACHED TO THE MINISTRY
A Special Workshop was held here
today on Down Stream Petroleum Industry for familiarisation of
the Members of Consultative Committee, attached to the Ministry
of Petroleum & Natural Gas. This unique Workshop was organised
at the initiative of Shri Ram Naik, Minister of Petroleum &
Natural Gas to project a coherent picture of petroleum refining
and marketing industry in India before the Members of the Consultative
Committee.
Inaugurating the Workshop, Shri Santosh
Kumar Gangwar, Minister of State for Petroleum and Natural Gas
informed the Members that as many as 20 Auto LPG Dispensing Stations
(ALDS) at different locations in the country. These are located
in Delhi, Mumbai, Pune, Chandigarh, Ahmedabad, Chennai, Bangalore,
Hyderabad and Jaipur. Another 20 ALDS are nearing completion.
This heralds a new era in making available to the consumers another
cleaner fuel in the country. The commissioning of ALDSs is part
of the first phase of the evolving a large marketing network of
auto LPG in which 228 ALDSs would be set up targetting at least
one in each State/UT Capitals.
Speaking further the Minister said
that the downstream oil sector is fully meeting the country’s
requirements of petroleum products which is at present is around
100 million tonnes per annum (MMTPA). In fact, in the last Financial
Year, India has emerged as net exporter of Petroleum Products
with a refining capacity of 116.07 MMTPA. The total consumption
is expected to register nearly four-fold increase by the year
2025. Thus the refining capacity would be required to match the
estimated demand of 360 MMTPA. Speaking about efforts to improve
fuel quality the Minister informed that the quality of Petrol
and Diesel sold in India matches with that of most of the developed
countries and the oil industry has made an investment of about
Rs. 10,000 crore to achieve the same. Further improvements in
fuel quality at refineries shall also be possible in future with
the development and adoption of appropriate technologies.
The Members took benefit of
the Workshop which covers different aspects of down stream petroleum
activities including Overview of Refining and Pipeline Processes;
Overview of Marketing Activities and Fuel Quality and Menace of
Adulteration. Replying to the queries of the Members during the
Open Forum, the Minister emphasised that the great importance
is given to the campaign against adulteration of petroleum products
in line with Government’s resolve to supply quality products in
all parts of the country. He also told the Members that an aggressive
programme is under implementation to survey and evaluate all potential
areas of the country for having Hydrocarbon reserves so that domestic
crude oil production could be increased. This is being done with
the help of latest technology including 3-D Seismic Survey.
