NEW DELHI: The petroleum and natural gas ministry has proposed consolidating compressed biogas (CBG) policy, financial and infrastructure schemes-currently spread across multiple ministries-under a single platform to accelerate project execution, minimise overlaps and bolster investor confidence.
At present, three ministries run parallel schemes across the CBG value chain: the ministry of renewable energy (MNRE) administers financial incentives, the Department of Fertilizers (DoF) oversees market development, and the petroleum ministry manages pipeline infrastructure and biomass aggregation machinery.
A National Integrated CBG Promotion Scheme (NICPS) has been proposed to bring all existing central government CBG schemes under one unified framework. The petroleum ministry will “oversee scheme operation, monitoring and inter-ministerial coordination,” according to a concept note, while MNRE and DoF will continue to handle the financial and administrative responsibilities of their respective programmes.
“This integration ensures synergy, eliminates overlaps and accelerates project implementation,” the petroleum ministry said.
The ministry launched the Sustainable Alternative Towards Affordable Transportation (SATAT) initiative in 2018 to promote CBG production. However, CBG expansion has been significantly slower than that of ethanol, which has seen a quantum leap in recent years.
Currently, 134 plants produce and sell CBG across India, about 70% of which are owned by Indian Oil and Gail. In the last fiscal year, 42,700 metric tonnes of CBG was sold in the country.
Several private companies have also announced plans to set up CBG plants at scale, although progress has remained slow.
The viability of CBG plants hinges on land availability and allocation, assured pricing and offtake for gas, reliable feedstock supply chains, access to affordable credit and financing, and pipeline connectivity and logistics infrastructure, the ministry said, adding that the integrated approach “seeks to address these challenges.”
“The scheme will provide end-to-end support-from project development to marketing-reducing project risk, lowering logistics costs, improving returns and accelerating the creation of a circular bio-economy in the country,” it said.
