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Adani Walks Away With Gas Rights In 21 Cities; BPCL Bags 11 Cities

When the bid round closed last month, IOC, BPCL and Adani Gas Ltd were the top bidders.

A compressed natural gas (CNG) pressure gauge is seen on a fuel bowser an Indraprastha Gas Ltd. gas station in New Delhi. (Photographer: Prashanth Vishwanathan/Bloomberg)
A compressed natural gas (CNG) pressure gauge is seen on a fuel bowser an Indraprastha Gas Ltd. gas station in New Delhi. (Photographer: Prashanth Vishwanathan/Bloomberg)

Billionaire Gautam Adani's group has bagged licences to retail gas in 21 cities in the latest city gas distribution bid round that saw state-owned Bharat Petroleum Corp Ltd's unit and Torrent Gas emerging as the other big winners.

Adani Gas won rights to retail CNG to automobiles and piped cooking gas to households and industries in 13 cities on its own and another nine, including Allahabad, in joint venture with state-owned Indian Oil Corp (IOC), according to results of 78 out of the 86 cities that were bid out in the country's biggest city gas distribution (CGD) bid round.

Adani Walks Away With Gas Rights In 21 Cities; BPCL Bags 11 Cities

IOC won rights to sell city gas in Coimbatore and Salem in Tamil Nadu and Guna in Madhya Pradesh, among others.

Bharat Gas Resources Ltd, a unit of state-owned BPCL, won in cities like Amethi and Rai Bareli in Uttar Pradesh and Ahmednagar in Maharashtra, while Torrent Gas Pvt Ltd.’s winning bids include ones for Alwar in Rajasthan, Moradabad in Uttar Pradesh and Karaikal in Puducherry.

State gas utility GAIL's retailing arm, GAIL Gas, managed rights for four cities, including Dehradun.

Indraprastha Gas Ltd, the firm that retails CNG in the national capital, won city gas rights for Meerut and Muzaffarnagar in Uttar Pradesh.

1.53 crore domestic piped natural gas connections and 3,627 CNG (compressed natural gas) stations for transport sector would be installed largely during a period of 8 years up to September 30, 2026. 
PNGRB Statement

Petronet LNG, India's largest liquefied natural gas (LNG) importer, sought to foray into CGD business by bidding for licence in seven cities.

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"Based upon the bids evaluations PNGRB approved issue of Letters of Intent (LoI) to the successful bidders for 78 GAs," it said.

The regulator said bids for remaining GAs are being evaluated and outcome of the same will be announced shortly.

"At present, CGD authorisation has been given by PNGRB for 92 GAs covering 124 districts spread over 23 States and UTs. These cover 20 percent of India's population and 11 percent of its geographical area. In addition, CGD operations are being carried out in 5 districts, authorisation for which is either under consideration of PNGRB or is sub-judice.

"With the completion of 9th CGD Bidding Round, CGD would be available in 178 GAs comprising 280 districts spread over 26 States and UTs covering more than 50 percent of India's population and 35 percent of its geographical area," PNGRB added.