Parliamentary scrutiny reveals India’s dependence on imported liquefied natural gas is rising rapidly, prompting calls for increased domestic production and infrastructure development to ensure energy resilience.
India’s dependence on imported liquefied natural gas has become a sharper policy concern as parliamentary scrutiny shows consumption rising faster than domestic output. The Estimates Committee, in a report tabled in the Lok Sabha on Friday, warned that continued growth in LNG imports could heighten exposure to global price swings, weaken energy security and add pressure on foreign exchange reserves. Moneycontrol reported that reliance on LNG imports reached 51% of domestic consumption between April and November 2024, underscoring how quickly the balance has shifted.
The committee said India’s LNG imports climbed from 13.29 million metric tonnes in 2014-15 to 26.96 million metric tonnes in 2024-25 on a provisional basis. At the same time, domestic natural gas production rose only modestly, from 33.66 billion cubic metres to about 36.11 billion cubic metres. That mismatch matters because India is trying to lift natural gas from roughly 6% of its primary energy mix to 15% by 2030, a target that would require a much larger and more dependable supply base.
The report urged the government to deepen long-term LNG sourcing while keeping room for spot purchases, and to cut import dependence over the medium to long term by raising domestic production, expanding compressed biogas and coal bed methane and improving energy efficiency. It also called for more overseas upstream investment as part of broader energy diplomacy. CareEdge Ratings has separately projected that import dependence could ease to about 45% by fiscal 2025-26 if new domestic production comes on stream as expected, although that outlook still leaves India heavily reliant on imported gas.
The committee also highlighted the country’s resource base and the slow pace of bringing it into production. India has estimated natural gas reserves of 1,094.19 billion cubic metres, with the western offshore accounting for 31% and the eastern offshore for 24%. Yet commercial output remains concentrated in only seven category-I sedimentary basins, while discoveries in five category-II basins have not yet been converted into production. The panel said a broader, more integrated strategy was needed to speed up exploration, develop known reserves and strengthen production infrastructure.
Infrastructure bottlenecks were another major concern. India has eight operational LNG regasification terminals with combined capacity of 52.7 million tonnes a year, and another 20 million tonnes a year is under construction or being expanded. The committee said the network remains heavily skewed towards the western coast and pressed for faster development along the eastern seaboard alongside the national gas grid. The U.S. Energy Information Administration has also noted that LNG growth depends not just on import terminals but on pipelines that can move fuel from ports to inland demand centres.
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