Sector Update | 27 August 2020
Oil & Gas
Oil & Gas
A deep-dive into the draft
regulation for unified tariff
Flying high on NGT’s besom
Over the past few years, The National Green Tribunal (NGT) has been at the forefront
in implementing pollution reduction in the country through both policy and punitive
measures.
The Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) had highlighted back in 2017–18 that 100
industrial clusters across India are polluted. NGT has called for strict action against
such units, including recovering the cost of damage done to the environment for the
past five years. In terms of air pollution levels, 32 of these were critically polluted,
while 28 were severely polluted.
Since the start of 2020 alone, NGT has levied a total of INR4b in fines across industries.
In its July 2020 order, it also asked CPCB to file an Action Taken Report (ATR) on
restricting the use of petcoke and fuel oil by Jan’21.
Natural gas is expected to be at the center of the fight against air pollution. We
highlight Petronet LNG, GUJGA, GAIL, and GSPL as the biggest beneficiaries of these
actions against industrial pollution (air).
Recent punitive measures by NGT
Industrial pollution: Next
driver for gas consumption
Excluding the INR4b fine imposed on 608 ceramic manufacturers at Morbi in
2019, the NGT has levied an additional INR4b in fines totally on 11 companies
since Jan’20 alone.
While none of the above may call for higher usage of natural gas, NGT in its
Jul’20 order asked the CPCB to file an ATR by Jan’21 on restricting the use of
petcoke and fuel oil. The movement against these polluting fuels has been
gaining momentum, and our earlier study suggested a ban on these may
generate new demand of 25mmscmd of natural gas (16% of total gas
consumption in FY20).
While 16% may not look lucrative, combined with coal and other polluting fuels,
replacement demand for dirty fuels could easily be ~100mmscmd (report
link).
Additional demand of 36mmscmd over next 2–3 years, in addition to dirty
fuel replacement
Several of the existing refineries – Paradeep, Barauni, Haldia, Vizag, Bhatinda,
and Mangaluru – are not connected to the gas grid as yet. They could generate
demand of 12mmscmd over the next two to three years as the necessary
pipeline infrastructure gets completed.
In addition to the four existing fertilizer plants – MCFL, MFL, SPIC, and Matix –
four more are under construction – three belong to HURL and one is at
Ramagundam, which is currently under commissioning. They could generate
total gas demand of 15mmscmd.
The City Gas Distribution sector reported total consumption of 28mmscmd in
FY20, and could generate an additional 10mmscmd over the next two to three
years. In total, 36mmscmd of incremental demand could emerge over the next
two to three years.
India has a total gas-based power generation capacity of 25GW. At 80% plant
load factor (PLF), it could consume a total of 91mmscmd of natural gas, against
consumption of 31mmscmd in FY20.
Power sector could provide the icing on the cake
Swarnendu Bhushan- Research Analyst
(Swarnendu.Bhushan@MotilalOswal.com)
Sarfraz Bhimani - Research Analyst
(Sarfraz.Bhimani@MotilalOswal.com)
Investors are advised to refer through important disclosures made at the last page of the Research Report.
27 August 2020
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Motilal Oswal research is available on www.motilaloswal.com/Institutional-Equities, Bloomberg, Thomson Reuters, Factset and S&P Capital.