INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
The minister also said the existing fixed-price formula for gas produced from old blocks would continue.India will let companies producing
gas from new local fields sell the cleaner fuel on e-bidding platforms, oil minister Dharmendra Pradhan said on Wednesday, in a move
expected to help them get better prices and boost output
India wants to raise the share of gas in its energy mix to 15 per cent by 2030 from 6.2 per cent now, but it currently relies on imports for
half of its daily gas needs of 160-170 million standard cubic meters (mmscm).Mr Pradhan said the new, more transparent price discovery
mechanism would help raise daily gas production from the Krishna Godavari basin on the east coast and other parts of the country by 40
mmscm.Reliance Industries and Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) operate blocks in the Krishna Godavari Basin."Pricing obtained through the
e-bidding platforms will be applicable to the gas discoveries whose field development plan was approved after February 2019," Mr Pradhan
told a news conference.Mr Pradhan said the Directorate General of Hydrocarbons would set guidelines for the platforms, though he did not say
when the e-bidding mechanism would start
Gas producers will not be allowed to participate in the e-bidding because of conflicts of interest, Mr Pradhan said, though affiliated firms
would be able to compete with other gas buyers.The minister also said the existing fixed-price formula for gas produced from old blocks
operated by state-owned ONGC and Oil India would continue
India slashed prices of gas from those blocks last month by about a quarter to $1.79 per million metric British thermal units (mmBtu), the
