Gail introduces benchmarking

Talking to The Indian Express, chairman and managing director of Gail Proshanto Banerjee said that the move is aimed at increasing the efficiency in the proposed national gas grid.

Elaborating on the benchmarking exercise, Gail officials said that consultants AT Kearney had taken a sample of 37 companies all around the world to reach at benchmarks for Gail. Fuel gas consumption is basically the amount of gas needed to drive the compressors which are stationed at the various pipelines. For both HBJ and DVJ, Gail has set a benchmark of 2.8 per cent which is comparable to the global benchmark of 2.4 per cent. In fact, according to Gail officials, many foreign companies who are using bigger machine have a benchmark of 2.81 per cent and Gail standards compare well to that.

Unaccounted gas is the gas which is lost in the process of transportation mainly due to differences in the meter readings. Gail has set a benchmark of plus minus 0.3 per cent which is equal to the global benchmark figure. In maintenance cost the benchmark is 0.83 per cent of gross block while in the case of general and administrative cost it is 2.62 per cent of gross block.

According to Gail officials, AT Kearney has identified 31 parameters for benchmarking out of which in 5 parameters Gail is better than global average, 5 at par with global average and in 7 Gail is below average.

In case of 4 parameters no evaluation is possible in case of Gail which 10 parameters do not apply to Gail in the present context.