India’s way towards building strategic natural gas reserve

Why in NEWS

• India is exploring building strategic natural gas storage facilities in the country on the lines of strategic crude oil reserves in a bid to have a large gas stockpile that can be utilised in emergencies and supply disruptions, and serve as a hedge against extreme price volatility in the international market.

About strategic natural gas reserve

• The idea is at a preliminary stage.
• A few global players specializing in gas storage have been approached to develop the proposal.
• The country, however, has no strategic natural gas storage facilities even as its gas consumption is expected to grow significantly over the next few years.
• India is a net importer of natural gas and depends on imports to meet around half of its requirement.
• Currently the focus is on examining the feasibility and technical viability of having such storage facilities.
• India has set a target to increase the share of natural gas in its primary energy mix to 15 percent by 2030 from a little over 6 per cent at present.

About strategic oil reserve

• India already has strategic crude oil reserves with a capacity to hold 5.33 million tonnes of oil in underground caverns, fit to meet around 9.5 days of the country’s oil demand.
• The capacity is being expanded by another 6.5 million tonnes in the second phase of the project.

There are a number of options available to develop strategic gas storages

• Storing natural gas in abandoned gas wells, as well as developing underground storage in different types of subsurface formations.
• Natural gas can be stored underground in depleted reservoirs in oil and gas fields, and in natural aquifers and salt caverns.
• It can also be stored in the gaseous state as well as in the form of LNG in large over-ground tanks.

Need to build strategic reserve due to

• India was adversely impacted by the tightening global supply and surging gas prices last year in the aftermath of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Strategic reserve around the world

• In the United States, most existing natural gas storages are in depleted oil and gas fields that are close to gas consumption centres.
• Apart from the US, various European countries, Canada, and China, among others, have gas storage facilities.
• As per information available on the European Council website, most European Union (EU) member states have gas storage facilities on their territory.
• Storage capacities in five EU member countries-Germany, Italy, France, the Netherlands, and Austria-account for two-thirds of the EU’s total gas storage capacity.

Conclusion

• Centre is already studying the prospects and feasibility of developing salt cave based strategic oil reserves in Rajasthan.
• Such caverns can easily be utilised for storing natural gas as well.
• The German company specialises in cavern storage and solution mining technology can be consulted.

GS PAPER – II

A push for GM mustard disregarding science

Why in the NEWS

• Currently, there has been debate by the environmentalists in the Supreme Court of India against Delhi University’s genetically modified (GM) herbicide-tolerant (HT) mustard.

About GM Crops

• GM crops are quite different from conventional varieties and hybrids.

• Biotechnologists insert select genes at a random location in the DNA of a plant to develop a GM crop.

• The insertion makes a GM crop express traits that it ordinarily would not.

• For instance, GM mustard has been altered to withstand the broad-spectrum plant-killer or herbicide glufosinate.

• This makes it easier to develop hybrid mustard seeds for higher yields.

• And farmers growing GM mustard can spray the herbicide to kill all plants except the mustard.

About GM Mustard

• Dhara Mustard Hybrid-11, otherwise known as DMH – 11, is a genetically modified hybrid variety of the mustard species Brassica juncea.
• DMH – 11 was created through transgenic technology, primarily involving the Bar, Barnase and Barstar gene system.
• The Barnase gene confers male sterility, while the Barstar gene restores DMH – 11’s ability to produce fertile seeds.

Standing Committees of the Parliament Views

• Highlighted major weaknesses in the regulatory system, and called for utmost caution before releasing GM food.

• The Committee on Science and Technology, Environment and Forests made a specific reference to GM mustard, and asked the government to conduct a thorough, independent, and transparent assessment of long-term biosafety, environmental risk and socio-economic impacts.

Issues

• HT crops “completely unsuitable in the Indian context” and warned of serious harm to the environment, rural livelihoods and sustainable agriculture.

• Centre has not placed the full biosafety dossier of GM mustard in the public domain.

About BT Cotton

• Bt cotton is the first and only GM crop approved in the country.

• Long-term research suggests that Bt cotton has provided only fleeting benefits to farmers, while enormously increasing their costs of cultivation and risk.

• On the other hand, some seed companies have profited handsomely from the expensive GM seeds

Way Ahead

• This is as compelling a case as can be against releasing any HT crop, and for comprehensively strengthening regulation before allowing GM food.

• Given the overwhelming political and technical consensus, the government needs to approach the issue of HT crops transparently and robustly with an emphasis on precaution.

GS PAPER – II and III

MDBs should adopt triple mandate to tackle poverty

Why in the NEWS

• THE G20 Independent Expert Group on Strengthening Multilateral Development Banks have recommended that the multilateral development banks (MDBs) adopt a triple mandate to addresses eliminating extreme poverty, inclusive growth and the financing of global public goods
• It has also suggested to constitute a ‘Global Challenges Funding’ mechanism for ‘Global Public Goods’.

Key Points

• Additional spending of $3 trillion per year is needed by MDBS by 2030, out of which two-thirds could come from domestic resource mobilization.
• The gap of $1 trillion would require additional external financing, half of which could come from private financing and rest from official financing.
• With the increase in official financing expected to be split between concessional and non- concessional funds.
• MDBs should be the preferred institutions; expanding to $90 billion per year for concessional finance and $300 billion in non-concessional lending.
• On the concessional side, we recommend that donors re-orient aid programs towards multilateral channels to enhance coherence and leverage.

About Multinational Development Banks

• Multilateral development banks (MDBs) originated in the aftermath of World War II to rebuild war-ravaged nations and stabilize the global financial system.

• Today, MDBs fund infrastructure, energy, education, and environmental sustainability in developing countries.

• While commercial banks seek to make profits on loans and other financial services, the goal of MDBs is to issue grants and low-cost loans to improve the economic conditions of impoverished or developing nations.

• MDBs now operate throughout the world and control trillions of dollars in assets.