More Stories

Informist, Wednesday, May 21, 2025

MUMBAI – India's consumption of natural gas declined by 6.7% on year in March to 5.7 billion cubic metres, according to the Gas Exporting Countries Forum. The fall was primarily because of weaker demand in the power generation, refineries, and fertiliser sectors, which recorded declines of 14.0%, 33.0%, and 3.6%, respectively, the intergovernmental organisation comprising the world's leading gas exporters said in its Monthly Gas Market Report for May.

Despite the decline, the fertiliser production segment remained the largest consumer of natural gas in India, accounting for 29.0% of total demand, followed by city gas distribution at 23.0%, power generation at 10.0%, and refining at 8.0%, the forum said in the report.

In the first three months of 2025, aggregated gas consumption in some of the major consuming countries, which account for 60% of global gas demand, increased 4% on year to 775.0 billion cubic metres. Growth was recorded in the EU, the UK, and North America, while Asia showed a decline. For the full year, global gas consumption is forecast to increase by 1.9%, influenced by continuous growth in the power and industrial sectors, per the report.

However, in April, gas consumption in the European Union fell 5.7% to 22.0 billion cubic metres, marking the first decline after seven months of growth. This drop was largely on account of reduced demand in the residential and industrial sectors. On the other hand, US gas consumption rose 1.6% to 68.0 billion cubic metres, supported by increased demand from the residential and power generation sectors.

"Meanwhile, China's apparent gas demand in March 2025 recorded a fourth consecutive monthly decline, falling by 3% y-o-y (year on year) to 35.4 bcm. The decrease was attributed to lower gas-fired power generation amid rising output from nuclear, wind, solar, and hydro sources," as per the report.

In March, global gas production was estimated to have increased 0.7% on year to 363.0 billion cubic metres. Africa, West Asia, and North America showed a positive production variation and counterbalanced the decline in other gas-producing regions, including Eurasia, which witnessed the greatest decline, along with a decrease in European production driven by lower gas output in Norway.

In Jan-Mar, global gas production is estimated to have decreased by 1.0% on year to 1,046.0 billion cubic metres. This decline was mainly driven by lower-than-expected Eurasian production, along with a decrease in African and European production.

In India's case, the report noted that in March, gas production recorded a decline of 4.1%, marking the ninth consecutive month of decrease, to 2.95 billion cubic metres.

The reduction was mainly due to a decline in offshore gas output, which constitutes 72% of total production and witnessed a decline of 5.6%, along with decreased production from the onshore Tripura and Assam fields. However, this effect was partially counterbalanced by a rise in Gujarat field production.

For the first quarter of 2025, the cumulative production in India amounted to 8.7 billion cubic metres, representing a reduction of 4.0%.

The forum noted in its report that Hindustan Petroleum Corp. Ltd. had signed a contract with ADNOC Trading of the United Arab Emirates in April to import 400,000 tonnes per annum of liquefied natural gas over five years. Indian Oil Corp. entered into a contract with Trafigura to import 500,000 tonnes per annum of LNG over five years.  End

IST, or Indian Standard Time, is five-and-a-half hours ahead of GMT

Reported by Abhijit Doshi

Edited by Rajeev Pai

For users of real-time market data terminals, Informist news is available exclusively on the NSE Cogencis WorkStation.

Cogencis news is now Informist news. This follows the acquisition of Cogencis Information Services Ltd by NSE Data & Analytics Ltd, a 100% subsidiary of the National Stock Exchange of India Ltd. As a part of the transaction, the news department of Cogencis has been sold to Informist Media Pvt Ltd.

Informist Media Tel +91 (22) 6985-4000 

Send comments to feedback@informistmedia.com

© Informist Media Pvt. Ltd. 2025. All rights reserved.