India is considering building emergency stockpiles of natural gas, on the lines of strategic oil reserves, to deal with supply disruption amid the country's growing dependence on fuel and its import. The government wants domestic consumption of natural gas, a cleaner fossil fuel, to rise two-and-a-half times by 2030 and is encouraging big public and private investments in gas production, import, transport and distribution infrastructure. Local demand increased 5.5 per cent between April and October to 35.1 billion cubic meters, increasing dependence on imports to 47 per cent of total consumption from 44 per cent a year earlier. Most heavy gas consuming countries already have natural gas storage in place, primarily for supply security. About 30 per cent of gas storage capacity is in the US, a major producer and consumer of natural gas. Russia, Ukraine, Canada and Germany together account for another 40 per cent. China, a late entrant to the game, too is fast building gas storage facilities. The first storage in India could come up at a site connected to a pipeline and the reserve would store imported gas, which could be released when needed in the domestic market.