With its investor-friendly policies, Gujarat, the state with largest refining capacity, pipeline network and a number of oil and gas discoveries, will soon become the energy hub of the country, Chief Minister Narendra Modi said on Friday.

Speaking at the unveiling of Royal/Dutch Shell's $600 million Hazira LNG import terminal, he said Gujarat's investor-friendly environment that guarantees growth with least government intervention and red-tapism, has attracted the single largest foreign direct investment in an energy project.

Gujarat, which boasts of Reliance Industries' 30 million tonne refinery and Indian Oil Corporation's 12.5 million tonne Koyali refinery and the Essar Oil's proposed 10.5 million tonne refinery at Hazira, laid a 1200-km gas pipeline grid throughout the state for transport of gas from new discoveries in offshore Cambay basin, onland Surat, Hazira and Ahmedabad blocks as well as imported liquefied natural gas.

"In the past one year, we have laid 600-km of pipeline network and want to put in place an infrastructure which will be a vehicle between production and consumption sectors," he said.

The network, being constructed on common carrier principle - implying that gas producers and importers can take capacity in the pipeline without actually spending on the construction, will give priority to power, fertilizer and ceramic units, he said.