India faces a pressing energy shortage. Despite rapid economic development, a large section of the population has little or no access to electricity, while the cost, reliability and availability of power constrain growth and investment in key sectors. As a result of this unmet demand, India has the potential to become one of the world’s largest consumers of natural gas. The commodity offers the government a cost-effective and environmentally sound answer to the country’s rising energy needs — yet the gas sector has struggled since 2010. The main obstacles to increasing the share of gas in the energy mix are a slowdown in domestic production, pricing and allocation issues, inefficient regulatory practices, and inadequate infrastructure.
