Union Minister Shri Hardeep Singh Puri commends energy sector resilience, insulation of domestic consumers from global price shocks, and massive upstream push under ‘Samudra[...]

The Petroleum and Natural Gas Regulatory Board (PNGRB) celebrated its 20th Foundation Day today at the Dr. Ambedkar International Centre, New Delhi. The event was graced by the Union Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas, Shri Hardeep Singh Puri, alongside Dr. Neeraj Mittal, Secretary, Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, senior government officials, and key industry leaders. Marking two decades of regulatory leadership, the milestone occasion focused on consumer empowerment, infrastructure expansion, digital transformation, safety assurance, and sustainable sectoral growth.
Major Initiatives & Key Launches
National PNG Drive 3.0: Building upon the success of PNG Drive 1.0 and 2.0, PNGRB launched National PNG Drive 3.0 to accelerate Piped Natural Gas (PNG) connections across domestic and commercial sectors nationwide.
MyPNG Portal: A unified, national digital consumer portal was launched to streamline PNG services, improve access to information, and strengthen interactions between consumers and City Gas Distribution (CGD) entities.
PNGRB Excellence Awards 2026: Outstanding performers across CGD networks, Natural Gas Pipelines, and Petroleum Product Pipelines were recognized for operational excellence, safety standards, and infrastructure delivery.
India Steers Energy Resilience with Infrastructure Push and Upstream Investments
Speaking on the occasion, Union Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas highlighted India's resilience in navigating global energy market volatility while advancing the nation's transition towards a gas-based economy. He noted that despite global energy market volatility with international price spikes of 70%-80%, strategic central excise duty cuts on petrol and diesel helped keep domestic fuel prices stable and insulated Indian consumers.
To further strengthen energy security, the Minister highlighted major policy decisions, including allocations of ₹84,084 crore under the Samudra Manthan scheme and ₹23,731 crore for GOBARdhan. The opening of 1 million sq km of previously restricted sedimentary basins has helped in boosting domestic hydrocarbon exploration and gas availability.
The Minister also highlighted the rapid expansion of the gas distribution ecosystem. Nearly the entire country has now been authorized for City Gas Distribution, while approximately 35,000 km of natural gas pipelines have been authorized. The Unified Tariff framework has helped reduce regional disparities and improve access to gas in distant and underserved regions. LPG connection coverage has also expanded from 14.5 crore in 2014 to over 33 crore.
Reaffirming the nation's commitment to increasing the share of natural gas in the primary energy basket from current level of around 6%, the Minister also pointed to the momentum generated by National PNG Drive 2.0. During the six-month drive from January to June 2026, around 12.10 lakh new PNG connections and 15.31 lakh DPNG registrations were achieved. The pace of daily DPNG additions increased from 4,702 to around 7,000, while daily additions of billed consumers rose from around 2,781 to around 7,500 during the same period.
During the West Asia crisis, the Government ensured continuity of essential gas supplies, while the CGD sector continued to expand PNG adoption and strengthen coordination with States and other stakeholders.
Addressing the gathering, the Secretary, Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, emphasized the evolving role of regulation in driving actual gas adoption across sectors, stressing that success must now be measured not merely by pipeline length laid, but by actual gas consumption, molecule utilization, and the speed at which household PNG connections multiply. He encouraged CGD entities to leverage special schemes to reduce cost recovery timelines from 10-15 years to 2-3 years, thereby addressing major financial roadblocks to network expansion. He also underlined the importance of coordination between upstream, downstream, Oil PSUs and the Government to ensure an uninterrupted clean energy supply.
The Minister also highlighted PNGRB's technology-enabled approach to regulation through the National Hydrocarbon Infrastructure Monitoring System (NHIMS), which brings together infrastructure, administrative, transport, geographical and satellite data on a common digital platform. The system is expected to strengthen monitoring, planning and regulatory oversight and enable more informed and timely decision-making.
Looking ahead, the Minister underscored the need for faster and more effective digital grievance redressal, timely expansion of CGD networks into new areas, healthy competition, stronger sectoral capacity and a regulatory framework that keeps pace with India's sustainability and Net Zero objectives. PNGRB's continued independence and arm's-length position from administrative and commercial interests, together with a clear, transparent and predictable regulatory framework, will remain important in building confidence across the industry.
The Minister congratulated PNGRB on completing two decades and expressed his best wishes to its leadership, officers and the entire natural gas industry for continued progress in the years ahead.