The push displays the nation’s excessive publicity to LNG provide shocks and worth volatility, and exhibits the way it lags manufacturing rivals comparable to China.
The ministry is ready to direct state-run GAIL, Engineers India and Indian Oil Corp to arrange an in depth feasibility report, senior officers instructed ET. They mentioned the federal government is working off a pre-feasibility research submitted by The South Asia Gasoline Enterprise (SAGE), a New Delhi-based personal sector consortium.
Secure, Price-Aggressive Provide
A constructive detailed feasibility report will pave the best way for formal government-level negotiations with Oman on gasoline provide, financing and undertaking execution.
“India wants to maneuver past dependence on LNG spot markets,” one of many officers mentioned. “A devoted pipeline from West Asia provides us secure, cost-competitive gasoline with out relying on any transit nation or maritime choke level.”
Learn extra: Aditya Birla group, KKR left in race for Sprng Power
India’s pure gasoline demand is steadily rising because the energy-hungry nation makes an attempt to boost the share of gasoline in its main vitality combine. Present consumption stands at roughly 190-195 million normal cubic metres per day (mmscmd) and is projected to achieve almost 290-300 mmscmd by 2030. Estimates counsel LNG imports alone might attain 180-200 mmscmd by the top of this decade.
Mission Particulars
The proposed Center East-India Deep-water Pipeline (MEIDP) will stretch 2,000 km below the Arabian Sea, connecting Oman on to the Gujarat coast. It can ship round 31 mmscmd of pure gasoline.
Learn extra: A username might in the future suffice as your deal with
The route might be designed to cross by means of the Arabian Sea through Oman and UAE, avoiding geopolitically delicate areas, and would enable India to entry gasoline from Oman, UAE, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Turkmenistan, and Qatar, a area holding 2,500 trillion cubic toes of gasoline reserves. The pipeline might run at depths of as much as 3,450 metres, making it one of many deepest undersea pipelines ever tried globally.
Latest technical research have confirmed the undertaking as possible owing to advances in deep-sea pipe-laying and pipe-repair expertise. SAGE, per its authorities submissions, has already laid round 3,000 metres of tactical check pipeline alongside the route at a value of round ₹25 crore to check seabed situations. ET couldn’t independently confirm this determine.
Wake-Up Name
Almost two-thirds of India’s LNG imports transited the Strait of Hormuz in 2025. When Iran successfully shut the route in late February following the battle with the US and Israel, world LNG provide fell by greater than 20%, triggering worth spikes.
Asian spot LNG costs, represented by the Platts JKM benchmark, have skilled sharp swings lately. Costs that hovered at $10-12 per MMBtu throughout secure durations surged to $24-25 per MMBtu as a result of geopolitical disaster.
The Hormuz disruption has underscored India’s vulnerability to each bodily provide shocks and worth swings. “Dependence on a single maritime chokepoint is now not viable,” mentioned the official cited above. “That is now a nationwide safety crucial.”
Alongside pipelines, policymakers are flagging a important hole with the absence of gasoline storage.
Not like crude, India has nearly no strategic gasoline reserves, leaving it uncovered to unstable spot markets and unable to retailer low-cost gasoline for occasions of crises. At the moment, India has 22-24 LNG storage tanks throughout regasification terminals, with an estimated storage capability of roughly 2-2.5 billion cubic metres (BCM). This quantity represents solely 10-12 days of nationwide gasoline consumption.
“India has debated an Oman pipeline for many years,” mentioned Ashutosh Karnatak, former chairman and managing director, GAIL. “The Hormuz disaster has compelled motion. A pipeline presents worth predictability and provide safety that LNG can not match.”
The transfer additionally highlights India’s hole with China in securing pipeline gasoline and storage. Beijing has spent twenty years constructing a number of overland pipeline corridors—exactly the form of provide safety that insulated it from the Hormuz shock.
China’s Energy of Siberia pipeline started operations in December 2019 and delivers as much as 38 bcm per yr from Siberian gasoline fields at full capability. A second pipeline, Energy of Siberia 2, with a proposed capability of fifty bcm per yr through Mongolia, is below negotiation. From Central Asia, China already has three parallel pipelines from Turkmenistan. These have a mixed capability of 55 bcm per yr. A fourth line is below building that will take complete capability to 85 bcm per yr.
Additionally, China’s complete gasoline storage capability is anticipated to achieve 80 bcm by end-2026, overlaying roughly 20% of its annual consumption. India has no comparable strategic gasoline reserve.
The proposed Oman pipeline might assist bridge key demand gaps. The fertiliser sector alone wants 46-50 mmscmd, whereas metropolis gasoline distribution continues to broaden quickly.
