The Minister of State for Petroleum and Natural Gas, Shri Rameswar Teli in a written reply to a question in the Rajya Sabha today informed that the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas has launched “Sustainable Alternative Towards Affordable Transportation (SATAT)” initiative on 1st October 2018, with the aim of establishing an ecosystem for production of Compressed Bio Gas (CBG) from various waste/ biomass sources and for promoting its use along with Natural Gas. Under SATAT initiative Oil and Gas Marketing Companies (OGMCs) are inviting Expression of Interest (EOI) to procure CBG from potential entrepreneurs. So far 35 CBG/biogas plants have been commissioned under SATAT initiative.
Under this initiative various enablers like assured price for off-take of CBG with long term agreements by OGMCs; inclusion of bio manures produced from CBG plants as Fermented Organic Manure and Liquid Fermented Organic Manure under Fertilizer Control Order 1985; inclusion of CBG projects under ‘White Category’ by CPCB on case-to-case basis; inclusion of CBG projects under Priority Sector Lending by RBI; loan products from various Banks for financing of CBG projects; directions from Department of Fertilizers for mandatory offtake of FOM by Fertilizer companies etc. have been provided to promote CBG sector.
Further, Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas has issued guidelines for co-mingling of domestic gas for supply for Compressed Natural Gas (Transport) & Piped Natural Gas (Domestic) segments of City Gas Distribution (CGD) Networks for synchronization of CBG with CNG in CGD Network to enhance use of CBG.