Lok Sabha Question No. 1996 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2022-07-28
Subject: Price Hike of Domestic Natural Gas
Ministry: PETROLEUM AND NATURAL GAS
Asked by: Chinta Anuradha

## LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 1996 TO BE ANSWERED ON 28 th  July, 2022

## Price Hike of Domestic Natural Gas

## 1996.  SHRIMATI  CHINTA ANURADHA:

## पेोलयम एवं ाक ृ तक गैस मंी

Will the Minister of PETROLEUM AND NATURAL GAS be pleased to state:

- (a) the details of hike in the price of domestic natural gas during the last two years;
- (b) whether the Government has taken any measures to reduce burden of increasing natural gas price on common people living in the country; and
- (c) if so, the details thereof, and if not, the reasons therefor?

## ANSWER

## पेोलयम एवं ाक ृ तक गैस मंालय म राय मंी ( ी रामेवर तेल ) MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF PETROELUM & NATURAL GAS

## (SHRI RAMESWAR TELI)

- (a) The  domestic  natural  gas  price  is  notified  on  half  yearly  basis.  Details  of  Domestic Natural Gas price for last two years are indicated below:
- (b) &  (c): Government has taken various policy initiatives for increasing domestic productionand to reduce import of natural gas.  These inter-alia include:-
- i. 'New Domestic Natural Gas Pricing Guidelines', 2014 to strike a balance between the requirements of producing and consuming sectors.
- ii. Marketing  including  pricing  freedom  with  a  price  ceiling  for  gas  production  from difficult areas such as High Pressure- High Temperature (HP-HT) and deepwater areas, 2016.
- iii. Marketing and pricing freedom for Coal Bed Methane (CBM), 2017.

| Period                   |   Domestic Gas price onGCV Basis US$/MMBTU |
|--------------------------|--------------------------------------------|
| 01.04.2020 to 30.09.2020 |                                       2.39 |
| 01.10.2020 to 31.03.2021 |                                       1.79 |
| 01.04.2021 to 30.09.2021 |                                       1.79 |
| 01.10.2021 to 31.03.2022 |                                       2.9  |
| 01.04.2022 to 30.09.2022 |                                       6.1  |

- iv. The Policy reforms announced in February 2019 to enhance domestic production of oil and gas, inter-alia provides the following initiatives for gas production:
- a) Full  marketing  and  pricing  freedom  at  arm's  length  basis  for  unexplored/ unallocated areas for new gas discoveries after date of policy i.e., 28.02.2019.
- b) Incentives  in  the  form  of  reduction  in  Royalty  by  10%  for  additional  gas production over and above Business As Usual (BAU) scenarios to Administered Price Mechanism (APM) fields of NOCs.
- v. 'Natural  Gas  Marketing  Reforms'  announced  in  October  2020  inter-alia  prescribes standard procedure to discover market price of gas to be sold by gas producers, through a  transparent  and  competitive  process.  Detailed  guidelines  for  Discovery  of  Market Price  for  Domestically  Produced  Natural  Gas  through  e-bidding  were  issued  vide Notification dated 03.12.2020.
- vi. An additional mechanism provided vide OM dated 19.08.2021, to gas producers having pricing and marketing freedom, for selling small quantity of gas, through gas exchanges authorized by PNGRB.
- vii. Detailed guidelines for monetization of Ad-hoc/Test Gas produced during the Testing of oil and gas well in November, 2021.
- viii. Complete Pricing and Marketing Freedom to gas produced from fields/blocks awarded under Hydrocarbon Exploration Licensing Policy (HELP).

Further,  Government in 2014 accorded the highest priority of domestic gas supply to CGD sector of Piped Natural Gas (PNG) to promote the usage of environment-friendly fuel i.e. Natural  Gas  among the public at  large. In  October,  2018,  Government launched  Sustainable Alternative Towards Affordable Transportation (SATAT) to promote use of Compressed Bio Gas (CBG) as envisaged in National Policy on Biofuels, 2018 (NPB-2018).   SATAT initiative on  CBG  encourages  entrepreneurs  to  set  up  CBG  plants,  produce  &  supply  CBG  to  Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs) for sale as automotive & industrial fuel.

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