Gas utility GAIL India said it has launched Asia's first integrated gas management system to track all information on transmission and distribution of natural gas in the country.

The SAP(application)-based Gas Management System, third of its kind in the world after Petrobras in Brazil and Pemex in Mexico, was launched at GAIL's corporate office here by Minister of State for Petroleum and Natural Gas R P N Singh, a company press statement said.

"The Gas Management System will put an integrated and enterprise wide system in place, covering GAIL's entire pipeline network," it said.

All the information related to commercial transactions like gas volume, calorific value, consumption of gas, value of gas consumed, nominated quantity of the gas delivered, transmission tariff, price of gas, other costs and applicable taxes will be available on real time basis.

"The system will help in monitoring operational aspects of the pipeline on real time basis including information regarding network utilisation, gas sales, volume transferred, revenue generation through gas sales and price variations," GAIL said.

It will facilitate online invoicing which could be downloaded at customers' end from the GMS portal directly, thus enabling better customer service and faster realisation.

GAIL presently operates over 8,000 km of trunk gas pipeline network in the country with a capacity to transport 160 million standard cubic meters per day of gas.

The company is implementing projects to add another 6,700 km of pipeline at an investment of Rs 30,000 crore over the next two years.

This will enhance the transmission capacity to around 300 mmscmd and enable GAIL to reach out to customers in 16 states in the country.