15 Apr 2024
Tokyo, Japan

Sumitomo Corporation (SC) will be entering the city gas business in India by making a primary investment in AG&P LNG Marketing Pte. Ltd. through a Japanese consortium comprising a new SPC to be formed together with the Japan Overseas Infrastructure Investment Corporation for Transport & Urban Development and Osaka Gas Singapore Pte. Ltd.

The Government of India is seeking to expand the use of natural gas by popularising compressed natural gas (CNG) vehicles through the development of city gas distribution network (CGD network)and pursuing other approaches as measures to meet the increasing energy demand associated with economic growth and to reduce carbon emissions and air pollution, with the aim of becoming carbon neutral by 2070. City gas distribution companies are granted exclusive authorisations for laying, building, operating, or expanding the CGD network in given authorised areas (GAs) by the Petroleum and Natural Gas Regulatory Board of India.

AG&P LNG Marketing Pte. Ltd. has investments in THINK Gas, which holds 7 GAs mainly in north-central India, and has investments in AG&P Pratham, which holds 12 GAs mainly in southern India. THINK Gas and AG&P Pratham have a total business area of approximately 325,000 km2, equivalent to around 90% of Japan’s land mass. AG&P LNG Marketing Pte. Ltd. will continue to invest in developing CGD infrastructure (CNG stations, household connections, steel and MDPE pipelines) with a view to increase the sale of natural gas and help in the transition of India into a gas-based economy.