This is the news that appeared in the newspapers last week!
The central government has paid Rs.22,000 crore as compensation to public sector oil companies for losses caused by the LPG cylinders. But today, as an alternative to LPG, Piped Natural Gas known as PNG (Piped Natural Gas - PNG) is available in India. Let's see what are the differences between LPG and PNG.
- LPG is one of the products produced in a petroleum refinery. Its manuboxing cost is high compared to natural gas.. Natural gas comes while drilling into the earth to extract the crude oil. As it can be easily extracted from crude oil, its production cost is lower than the relative cost of LPG.
- The hydrocarbons present in LPG are Butane and Propane. But natural gas has the simplest hydrocarbon called Methane. Since Methane gas is completely burnt without any residue there is less pollution while using natural gas as a fuel.
- Natural gas is less dense than air. So even if a leak occurs anywhere, it will immediately go upwards, get diluted and mix harmlessly in the air. But LPG is denser than air. So if there is a leak in the LPG system, it will form a LPG cloud at ground level , which will be invisible. Even a small spark can cause a fire and a big accident. So using natural gas is much safer than using LPG.
- Natural gas is easily compressible and can be stored easily in less space than LPG. Hence storage and transportation of natural gas in bulk tanks is easy. As a one-time investment, pipelines can be laid and gas be supplied to the consumers. That would ensure low recurring costs. But LPG gas has to be compressed in oil refineries and stored in cylinders. There is a cost of packing in the cylinders. Then the cylinders have to reach the marketing company where they are loaded on trucks and then the godowns kept by the dealer. Finally the dealer's employees have to deliver them to the consumers' homes. Then check how much it costs at each stage. Apart from the cost of transportation, imagine the unwanted traffic in the logistics system.?
- As natural gas is supplied to each house through pipes equipped with meters, it is enough to pay the fee according to the meter reading every month. It is convenient for customers to pay gas once a month like other monthly charges. Cash flow is stable for marketing companies as well. But even today consumers are not sure what time the LPG cylinder ends. Every month has an element of uncertainty. The uncertainty would come to an end when there is a perianal supply of gas through the pipeline as long as one makes the payment.
Due to the abundant availability of natural gas in India today, it is imperative to use PNG instead of LPG. But according to 2020 statistics, most of the states in India have not take the PNG to its citizens. Though PNG is widely used in states like Gujarat, Maharashtra, Delhi and Uttar Pradesh. In states like Tamil Nadu, PNG is yet to make any progress. Actually PNG should have come to Tamilnadu four to five years ago. But due to some legal hurdles, the initiative has not seen any progress.?
Now the current ruling government in Tamilnadu has announced two months ago that PNG will become order of the day. Chennai will be given priority as usual. But when Metro Water, Metro Rail and Electricity Board are already keeping Chennai under siege with reckless digging , people are sure to get irritated when the oil and gas companies start digging again for gas pipelines. Despite this, when LPG is devouring people's tax money, it is necessary to call for support to PNG for any reason.
- Sundararaman Chintamani
