Ambani talks up CBG plan at Reliance AGM
Unlike in past AGMs, Reliance chairman and managing director Mukesh Ambani did not utter the LNG word this year but instead extolled the virtues of CBG.
Addressing the two-hour-long 47th AGM online on August 29 (2024), Ambani laid a roadmap of how he wants to set up a modern and sophisticated CBG production plant chain within the next few years. "Reliance started with just two demo CBG units a couple of years ago," he said.
"And now we are rapidly expanding our investments in bioenergy to reach 55 operating CBG plants by 2025; these 55 integrated CBG plants will increase the incomes of our farmers by converting food producers to energy producers." He added the CBG plants will also generate over 30,000 direct and indirect jobs in rural areas, "creating a model of all-round prosperity for the rural economy."
A Gujarat energy department source says Ambani matches the government's CBG line. "The oil ministry wants to increase CBG blending in natural gas by 2030," he says.
"Last year, a committee recommended that India target 10% blending by 2030." He is referring to the oil ministry's Energy Transition Advisory Committee headed by former oil secretary Tarun Kapoor to increase the share of clean energy sources such as CBG, hydrogen, biofuel, nuclear, geothermal, and tidal in the country's energy mix.
A gas retailer who has been liaising with CBG producers in Gujarat welcomes the Reliance move. But he believes "even this is not enough and many other companies, including state-owned companies" will have to work to meet the oil ministry target of 5000 CBG plants by March 31 (2025).
Compare that target to the 72 plants said to be in operation on August 31 (2024), according to the latest figures released by the Sustainable Alternative Towards Affordable Transportation (SATAT), a CBG promotion body set up by GAIL, IndianOil, Bharat Petroleum, Hindustan Petroleum and Indraprastha Gas. Reliance is setting up a bioenergy deep-tech research and development centre at Jamnagar in Gujarat.