Hydrocarbon Vision 2030 for Northeast India

Union Ministry of Petroleum and Natural gas (MoPNG) has released the Hydrocarbon Vision 2030 for north-east India in 2016. The Hydrocarbon Vision 2030 outlines steps to leverage the hydrocarbon sector for social and economic development of the north-east region. The states covered under it are Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Manipur, Nagaland, Sikkim, Mizoram and Tripura.

Key features of the Hydrocarbon Vision 2030

• Objective: To leverage the north-east region’s hydrocarbon potential, improve the availability of petroleum products, enhance access to clean fuels, facilitate economic development and link common people to the economic activities in this sector.
• It lays out a detailed roadmap for the entire hydrocarbons value chain, covering all aspects of upstream, midstream and downstream segments of this sector.
• The Vision rests on five pillars of 5Ps People, Policy, Partnership, Projects and Production.
• People: Foresees accessibility of clean fuel to households in this region and also foster skill development and local community involvement.
• Policy: Focus on development of areas including moderation of specific terrain and weather conditions of the region along with fund planning for new projects.
• Partnership: Give stress on greater involvement of state governments from this region in planning and implementation and also boosting trade with neighbouring nations.
• Projects: Focus on pipeline connectivity for carrying natural gas, liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), petroleum products, oil and lubricants (POL).
• It will also include building refineries and import links and development of compressed natural gas (CNG) highways and city gas distribution network.
• Production: Give emphases for technology deployment, production enhancement contracts and fast-track clearance and also development of service provider hubs.
• The vision also focuses on other areas including exploring hydrocarbon linkages and trade opportunities with neighbouring countries like Bangladesh, Myanmar, Nepal and Bhutan.
• It also aims at doubling Oil and Gas production by 2030, fast tracking projects, generating employment opportunities and promoting cooperation with neighbouring countries.

TAPAS Initiative

• TAPAS (Training for Augmenting Productivity and Services) is the initiative of the National Institute of Social Defence (NISD), Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, to provide access to lectures by subject experts, study material and more, but in a manner that it supplements the physical classroom without compromising on the quality of teaching.
• The main objective of introducing the course modules is to impart training and enhance the knowledge and skills for the capacity building of the participants.
• It can be taken up by anyone who wishes to enhance his or her knowledge on the topics and there is no fee for joining.
• The five basic courses are on Drug (Substance) Abuse Prevention, Geriatric/Elderly Care, Care and Management of Dementia, Transgender Issues and on the comprehensive course on Social Defence Issues.
• TAPAS is a standard MOOC (Massive Open Online Course) platform with course material such as filmed lectures and e-study material.
• It also includes discussion forums to support and encourage interactions among students and course coordinators.
• There will be a virtual class where an expert or a resource person will give a lecture about the subject with the help of animated infographics and Powerpoint presentations.
• The participants will be provided with informative material like articles, case studies and other study material on the related topic, which can be downloaded for future reference.
• After completing each module, students can assess their understanding of the subject with the help of a multiple-choice quiz.
• There is also a discussion forum on the portal on which they can raise their doubts with the course coordinator.

Pradhan Mantri Urja Ganga Project

• Pradhan Mantri Urja Ganga project is also known as Jagdishpur – Haldia & Bokaro – Dhamra Pipeline Project (JHBDPL).
• It is a gas pipeline project that aims to provide cooking gas to people. It was launched in 2016 in Varanasi and later extended to people in the states of Bihar, West Bengal, Odisha and Jharkhand.
• The government is taking the initiative to connect the eastern states with the national gas grid.
• The total length of the pipeline under the Pradhan Mantri Urja Ganga Project is approximately 3,384 km, out of which 766 km of pipeline is in Odisha state and the balance 2,618 km is in the states of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal & Assam.
• The project will not just supply CNG to automobiles and cooking gas to household kitchens in cities along the route, but also to industries to meet their feedstock or fuel requirement.
• The seven main station cities include Varanasi, Patna, Bokaro, Jamshedpur, Kolkata, Ranchi, Bhubaneswar and Cuttack as the major beneficiaries of the project. The main trunk of the pipeline ends at Haldia (West Bengal) and Dhamra (Odisha).
• The project is being implemented by GAIL. GAIL is executing the Jagdishpur-Haldia-Bokaro-Dhamra Pipeline (JHBDPL) of a length of 2,655 km and the Barauni-Guwahati Pipeline of the length of 729 km under Pradhan Mantri Urja Ganga Project to connect Eastern India.

North East Gas Grid Project

• In only the second instance of the government directly funding a gas pipeline, the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) on Wednesday approved a ? 5,559 crore viability gap funding of 60% for the proposed northeast gas grid.
• About 20% of India’s natural gas production comes from the North-East. Out of about 75 million standard cubic meters per day of gas output, 15 mmscmd come from North East. Currently, Assam, Arunachal Pradesh and Tripura have established gas production potential while there are possibilities for the same in Nagaland and Manipur.
• The 1,656-km North-East Natural Gas Pipeline Grid will connect Guwahati in Assam to major cities in the region such as Itanagar, Dimapur, Kohima, Imphal, Aizwal, Agartala, Shillong, Silchar, Gangtok, and Numaligarh.
• The pipeline will enable the supply of piped cooking gas to households and CNG to automobiles, besides fuel to industry. However, in the absence of anchor customers, the ? 9,265 crore pipeline is not economically viable.
• The North-East pipeline grid is to be implemented by Indradhanush Gas Grid, a joint venture of state-owned GAIL India, Indian Oil Corp (IOC), Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC), Oil India Ltd (OIL) and Numaligarh Refinery Ltd (NRL).
• The consortium had pitched for a 60 per cent funding support from the government and would raise the rest via equity and debt. Without government support, the pipeline will not be viable.
• This is the second time that a gas pipeline project in the country will be funded by the government.
• In 2016, the government provided a capital grant of? 5,176 crore, or 40% of the project cost of the 2,655-km Jagdishpur-Haldia and Bokaro-Dhamra (JHBDPL) gas pipeline project, which GAIL is currently executing.
• GAIL is also laying a 750-km line from Barauni to Guwahati as part of the ?12,940 crore JHBDPL project, which is also known as the Pradhan Mantri Urja Ganga’ project. This is proposed to be connected to the North-East via the Indradhanush grid.
• All other pipelines in the country have been funded by public or private sector companies.
• The funding support to the gas grid is a part of a broader goal of the government to raise the share of natural gas in the country’s energy mix to 15% by 2030 from current 6.2%.
• The government has envisaged developing the National Gas Grid. At present, about 16,788 km natural gas pipeline is operational and about 14,239 km gas pipelines are being developed to increase the availability of natural gas across the country.
• For effective monitoring of the project implementation, a committee comprising of officials from the Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas, Department of Expenditure, Ministry of Development of North East Region, Ministry of Environment, Forest & Climate Change, and Department of Fertilizers, may be formed, which would periodically review the progress in its implementation and take steps to smoothen out any issues in execution.