Scholars at the Hoover Institution partnered with the Delhi-based Council on Energy, Environment, and Water (CEEW) through a series of Chatham House Rule policy roundtables and discussions alongside India-based experts and private sector to consider the potential for natural gas in the Indian energy economy.
Natural gas currently represents about 5% of India primary energy use, with current government goals to expand that share to 15% amidst broader rapid energy demand growth. India is already the world’ fourth-largest importer of liquified natural gas (LNG), and with stagnant domestic gas production, much of that growth would come from new LNG imports. The resulting report, published by CEEW, recommends a roadmap of pragmatic policy reforms that could help India to achieve the economic, energy security, and environmental benefits of a more gas-intensive economy. This includes rationalizing domestic policy and price structures, including by bringing natural gas under the Indian Goods and Services Tax (GST) framework, reforming pipeline access and tariff mechanisms, and strengthening gas market trading. In the wake of the extended 2026 closure of the Strait of Hormuz, through which nearly half of India’s LNG is currently sourced, the report also considers ways to diversify India’s current gas supply base through government-to-government cooperation, long-term contracts with new partner countries, and investments in gas supply chain infrastructure.
This report supports the Hoover essay series "Commentaries on Energy as a Pillar of the US-India Relationship.” Even beyond their shared values, the United States and India’s shared interests will underpin their economic and diplomatic relationship through the twenty-first century. Energy already accounts for a substantial portion of trade between the two countries, and emerging cooperation across energy resources and technologies promises to be a central pillar of that strategic relationship into the future. The commentaries in this series, produced by the Hoover Institution’s George P. Shultz Energy Policy Working Group and its Huntington Program on Strengthening US-India Relations, feature voices from both countries reflecting on the challenges and the opportunities in US-India energy cooperation.
