Better Piped Natural Gas (PNG) coverage could have eased supply situation: Experts

BHOPAL: At a time when the mounting stress on global energy and fuel supply amid the escalating West Asian war is starting to pinch LPG consumers in Madhya Pradesh, the state is outranked by border states in terms of Piped Natural Gas (PNG) connections, according to the Union government.The total PNG connections in MP currently number 2.94 lakh, putting it in the eighth position among all states on this score. The apparent lack of preference for PNG has come to the fore as the state grapples with a perceived supply stress of cooking gas or LPG. Significantly, on Wednesday, the state government ordered district collectors to limit supplies of commercial LPG to only hospitals and educational institutions, leaving several hotels and eateries staring at closure once their available cylinder stocks run out. According to the central government, MP lags border states such as Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra and Gujarat by a distance with regard to PNG connections. This, despite the fact that piped gas is considered immune to panic buying due to the natural household preference for the LPG in Madhya Pradesh.Despite long queues outside LPG gas dealers’ and allegations of agencies not picking up booking calls of consumers, the state government maintains that it has sufficient LPG stocks, adding that the perceived cylinder crisis was largely due to panic-buying.Even if the argument put forward by the government holds, experts reckon that increased piped natural gas distribution would have helped ease the perceived LPG supply stress in the state.The state has over 1.25 crore LPG consumers, while the PNG connections are significantly lower at just 2.94 lakh. In percentage terms, PNG consumers in MP are fewer than 2.5 per cent of LPG customers.