LNG corridor study in East India: IPPL tender reveals uncertainty over real trucking demand
LNG corridor study in East India is exposing one of the biggest uncertainties inside India’s gas mobility transition — nobody yet knows where commercially sustainable LNG trucking demand actually exists across eastern freight corridors. IndianOil Petronas Pvt Ltd’s latest feasibility tender linked to the Haldia LNG terminal effectively turns the study into a large-scale demand discovery exercise. Indian Petroplus analysis indicates that the sector’s biggest risk is no longer infrastructure construction, but downstream consumption viability.
The tender requires consultants to independently identify LNG trucking corridors, evaluate freight density, model transportation economics and validate real customer demand. Unlike western India’s relatively mature LNG transport ecosystem, eastern India still faces fragmented industrial activity, lower LNG familiarity among transport operators and weaker downstream gas penetration.
A major signal inside the LNG corridor study in East India is IPPL’s insistence that consultants secure actual customer engagement agreements during the study itself. This suggests the company is less interested in theoretical market projections and more focused on proving whether bankable LNG demand truly exists.
The Haldia LNG terminal has effectively become the anchor point for the entire eastern India LNG mobility experiment. All supply-chain modelling and route simulations will revolve around Haldia as the principal sourcing node.Indian Petroplus analysis suggests that India’s LNG expansion strategy now faces a critical test: whether demand ecosystems can scale quickly enough to justify the infrastructure being built across eastern freight corridors.