The Petroleum and Natural Gas Regulatory Board (PNGRB) was constituted under The Petroleum and Natural Gas Regulatory Board Act, 2006 (NO. 19 OF 2006) notified via Gazette Notification dated 31st March, 2006.
The Act provide for the establishment of Petroleum and Natural Gas Regulatory Board to protect the interests of consumers and entities engaged in specified activities relating to petroleum, petroleum products and natural gas and to promote competitive markets and for matters connected therewith or incidental thereto.
Further as enshrined in the act, the board has also been mandated to regulate the refining, processing, storage, transportation, distribution, marketing and sale of petroleum, petroleum products and natural gas excluding production of crude oil and natural gas so as and to ensure uninterrupted and adequate supply of petroleum, petroleum products and natural gas in all parts of the country.
Currently, following incumbents, professionally grace, the seats of decision making in the Board:
- Sh. L. Mansingh, Chairperson
- Sh. B.S. Negi, Member (Infrastructure)
- Mrs. Sudha Mahalingum, Member (Distribution)
- Dr. Y.P.C. Dangay, Member (Legal)
- Sh. Ratan P. Watal, Secretary
“To create a vibrant energy market with rapid and orderly growth through facilitation of flow of investments into the basic infrastructure for efficient transportation and distribution of petroleum, petroleum products and natural gas at minimum cost and high level of protection of consumer interests through fair trade practices and competition amongst the entities so as to ensure the enhanced competitiveness of Indian economy and customer satisfaction.”
Functions of the Board
The Board shall- (A) protect the interest of consumers by fostering fair trade and competition amongst the entities; (B) register entities to-
(E) regulate, by regulations,-
(I) lay down, by regulations, the technical standards and specifications including safety standards in activities relating to petroleum, petroleum products and natural gas, including the construction and operation of pipeline and infrastructure projects related to downstream petroleum and natural gas sector; (J) perform such other functions as may be entrusted to it by the Central Government to carry out the provisions of this Act. |
Powers of Board
- The Board shall have jurisdiction to-
- adjudicate upon and decide any dispute or matter arising amongst entities or between an entity and any other person on issues relating to refining, processing, storage, transportation, distribution, marketing and sale of petroleum, petroleum products and natural gas according to the provisions of Chapter V, unless the parties have agreed for arbitration;
- receive any complaint from any person and conduct any inquiry and investigation connected with the activities relating to petroleum, petroleum products and natural gas on contravention of-
- retail service obligations;
- marketing service obligations;
- display of retail price at retail outlets;
- terms and conditions subject to which a pipeline has been declared as common carrier or contract carrier or access for other entities was allowed to a city or local natural gas distribution network, or authorisation has been granted to an entity for laying, building, expanding or operating a pipeline as common carrier or contract carrier or authorisation has been granted to an entity for laying, building, expanding or operating a city or local natural gas distribution network;
- any other provision of this Act or the rules or the regulations or orders made there under.
Chairperson
Shri L. Mansingh belonged to the 1970 batch of the Indian Administrative Service of the Gujarat cadre. His last assignment prior to superannuation was Secretary to Government of India in the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution, Department of Consumer Affairs from 01.06.2004 to 31.10. 2006. In this assignment, he was responsible for all consumer-related issues, internal trade including futures trading, commodities exchanges, monitoring of prices of essential commodities and ensuring adequate availability of these commodities. Standards setting and conformity assessment through Bureau of Indian Standards was also part of the responsibilities.
Prior to the present assignment, Shri Mansingh was Director General of Foreign Trade for the period from August, 2002 to May, 2004. During his tenure, the reform process in this area was carried forward through total simplification of the EXIM Policy and the procedures to make it exporter friendly with adoption of infotech. DGFT Head Office became ISO 9200 certified with all Zonal and Regional Offices initiating the process of getting certified.
In his first stint with Government of India, Shri Mansingh was Under Secretary and Deputy Secretary in the Ministry of Commerce looking after engineering and project exports. In his second stint from 1987-1992, he was Joint Secretary (Industrial Policy) in the Department of Industrial Development in charge of Secretariat for Industrial Approvals (SIA). As such, he was directly responsible for the implementation of the New Industrial Policy, 1991 which started the process of liberalization.
In Government of Gujarat, Shri Mansingh has worked in various capacities, most of which have been in areas of finance, investment promotion and industrial development and management of large projects. He has occupied posts such as Director (Institutional Finance); Secretary (Economic Affairs); Managing Director, Sardar Sarovar Narmada Nigam; Industries Commissioner; Managing Director, Gujarat Industrial Investment Corporation and Principal Secretary of Industries & Mines Department. He was also the Member-Secretary of the State Finance Commission with a broad TOR encompassing the role of the State Government in a liberalized economic environment, which submitted its report in April, 1994. As such, Shri Mansingh has direct involvement and experience in formulation and implementation of reform process in both the State and the Central levels.
He has been appointed as the Chairperson of Petroleum and Natural Gas Regulatory Board on 25th June, 2007, with a tenure of 5 years.
Board Members
Member Infrastructure
Shri B.S.Negi , is a Post Graduate in Mechanical Engineering with Honours and Post Graduate in Project Management. He is a chartered engineer and the Fellow of Indian Institute of Mechanical Engineering. He has 38 years of experience spreading in the areas of Oil Refining, Fertilizers, Gas Processing, Transportation, E&P and Gas Sourcing.He has been associated with import of LNG to India from Qatar, Iran, Yemen & Australia etc. Shri Negi has been the Member of the technical team from India negotiating for Iran-Pakistan-India (IPI), Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) and Myanmar India gas Pipelines. Shri Negi has authored a book published in January, 2008 titled “ LNG- An Indian Scanerio”
Shri Negi has served in various capacities in the organizations like Indian Oil Corporation Ltd, National Fertilizers Limited and GAIL (India) Limited. He has been in the boards of several companies in India as well as abroad.
After superannuating from GAIL (India) Limited as its Director (Business Development) Shri Negi has been appointed by the Government of India as Member of the first Oil & Gas Sector Regulatory Board the Petroleum & Natural Gas Regulatory Board (PNGRB).
Member Distribution
Mrs. Sudha Mahalingam, is an energy economist with over 25 years of professional experience. She has worked for several leading think-tanks and research institutes in India and has held positions of responsibility in business journalism and academia. Prior to joining the Petroleum and Natural Gas Regulatory Board, Mrs.Mahalingam held the prestigious Senior Fellowship at the Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Contemporary Studies, Nehru Memorial Museum & Library, New Delhi, where she was researching on India's energy security At Centre for Policy Research, a renowned think-tank based in Delhi, Mrs. Mahalingam headed the country project on Electricity Governance. At the Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses, New Delhi, she headed the Cluster on Energy, Environment and Economics. Mrs. Mahalingam has undertaken energy-related consultancy assignments for multilateral organisations including the World Bank. She has been championing the consumer cause in the electricity sector through purposeful interventions in the electricity regulatory space. Her areas of interest include the geopolitical, regulatory, economic and environmental dimensions of all forms of energy -oil, gas, coal as well as electricity from nuclear, hydropower and other renewables. She has published widely in Indian and international journals and has been writing regularly in the popular press. Mrs. Mahalingam is also a frequent speaker in national and international energy conferences.
Member Legal
Dr YPC Dangay , LLB, PGD in Constitutional Law, LLM, LLD, started his career as a Law Teacher in 1973 teaching all subjects to students of LLB as well as LLM and guiding research. He was appointed as examiner in several Universities and acted as Convener of Research Degree Committee. Subsequently in October 1988, he joined the Government of India as Assistant Legal Advisor in the Department of Legal Affairs as a direct recruit through UPSC and later on as Deputy Legal Adviser. He was later on promoted as Additional Legal Advisor in the same Department (Grade II of Indian Legal Service), wherein he also held independent charge as head of office, Branch Secretariat of Ministry of Law and Justice at Bangalore. He has also held the position of Legal Adviser in the Ministry of Defence, as an Arbitrator (in the rank of Joint Secretary) in the Ministry of Urban Affairs & Employment and Legal Adviser, DGFT in the Ministry of Commerce. As Joint Secretary & Legal Advisor (Grade I of Indian Legal Service), in the Department of Legal Affairs, he has tendered legal advice and opinions on various matters to virtually all Departments/Ministries in the Government of India. He was also associated with various high powered Committees of the Government of India on diverse issues. Dr Dangay was also a Member of the Government of India delegation in June 2006 that negotiated and finalized an Agreement on Social Security between the Kingdom of Belgium and India in Brussels. He has also been awarded the prestigious Teacher Fellowship (1976-79) under Faculty Improvement Programme of University Grants Commission and is a Life Member, Indian Law Institute, New Delhi, as well as Life Member of the Central India Law Institute, Jabalpur (M.P.)
Dr Dangay joined the Petroleum Natural Gas Regulatory Board on 31.7.2007 as Member (Legal) with tenure of 5 years, after taking VRS from the Government of India.
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