India shrinks its gas fleet as idle plants become unusable
India has phased out about five gigawatts of gas-fired power capacity that became inoperable after being left idle for years, according to people familiar with the matter. Some of the plants had sold off machinery, while others had become so rusty they were no longer fit to use, the people said. They asked not to be named as they are not authorized to speak to the media. India’s gas power industry has struggled for years, largely thanks to high prices which made plants uncompetitive, complicating the government’s goal to more than double the share of the fuel in the energy mix by 2030. In the year through March, India’s gas-fired generators ran at an average 14.5% of their capacity. About 7 gigawatts of projects in the southern region clocked a utilization rate of below 4%. The power ministry didn’t immediately respond to an emailed request for comment. The nation’s gas fleet totaled 20.1 gigawatts in April, compared with 25.2 a month earlier, data from the power ministry’s Central Electricity Authority show. Lower gas power capacity has raised other challenges for India, including making it harder to meet summer electricity requirements. This is especially true during warm evenings, when nearly 107 gigawatts of solar capacity goes off grid and demand soars as air-conditioners remain switched on. The highest number of closures were recorded in the state of Andhra Pradesh, where a string of gas power projects had been counting on fuel supplies from Reliance Industries Ltd.’s KG D6 field in the Bay of Bengal. The company had expected to produce 80 million cubic meters a day of gas from the site, but production peaked at 55.9 million cubic meters a day in the fiscal year 2011, and began to slide thereafter. It plunged to a low of 0.9 million cubic meters in 2019. Output has recovered since but is still at half of peak levels.
LNG to drive INOX India’s growth in FY26
Liquefied natural gas (LNG) is set to be the key growth driver for INOX India in FY26, backed by rising global adoption and a strong order book. Speaking to CNBC-TV18, Siddharth Jain, Promoter and Non-Executive Director of INOX India, said, “We are seeing greater adoption of that fuel not only in India but across the world, across different segments. We’re very excited about the next couple of years in this vertical.” The company reported a strong Q4FY25, which saw its highest-ever revenue and EBITDA. Revenue rose 33.6% year-on-year, while EBITDA surged 53.4%. For the full year, the company reported moderate growth of 15-20% in topline, EBITDA and PAT. Jain said all three of INOX India’s business verticals — industrial gas LNG, cryo-scientific, and beverage containers — are showing strong growth momentum. The company is also seeing the benefits of a strategy shift made during its IPO, where it chose to focus more on export-oriented orders. “Our strategy, which we laid out over two years ago during the IPO — focusing more on export jobs — has also played out,” he said
Regulator approval must for new LNG import terminal
The oil regulator has made it mandatory for companies planning to establish new liquefied natural gas (LNG) import terminals or expand existing ones to obtain prior approval, but dropped the requirement to reserve a portion of the terminal capacity for third-party access. The Petroleum and Natural Gas Regulatory Board (PNGRB) has notified Registration for Establishing and Operating Liquefied Natural Gas Terminals Regulations, 2025. “These regulations lay down a robust framework focused on registration and oversight of LNG terminals, (and) promotion of competition among entities and prevention of infructuous investments,” the regulator said, adding that the rules are a step in alignment with India’s vision of increasing the share of natural gas to 15& in the energy mix by 2030. The norms also seek to ensure equitable and adequate natural gas availability across the country, protection of consumer interests through improved access and supply reliability, and facilitate infrastructure availability for evacuation of regasified LNG through pipelines. An entity wanting to build an LNG terminal will have to inform PNGRB before taking the final investment decision (FID). The same will have to be done for expanding the capacity of an existing LNG terminal.