Govt hikes gas price by 62%; CNG rates may go up

Sep 30, 2021

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NEW DELHI: The federal government on Thursday hiked by 62 per cent the value of pure gasoline that’s used to provide electrical energy, make fertilisers and become CNG to make use of as gas in cars and cooking gasoline for family kitchens.
That is the primary improve in charges since April 2019 and comes on again of firming benchmark worldwide costs however doesn’t replicate the spurt in spot or present value of liquefied pure gasoline (LNG) witnessed over the past couple of weeks.
The oil ministry’s Petroleum Planning and Evaluation Cell (PPAC) mentioned the charges paid for gasoline produced from fields given to state-owned Oil and Pure Gasoline Company (ONGC) and Oil India Ltd (OIL) shall be $2.90 per million British thermal unit for the six-month interval starting April 1.
Concurrently, the value for gasoline produced from troublesome fields comparable to deepsea, which relies on a special components, was hiked to $6.13 per mmBtu from the present $3.62 per mmBtu.
That is the utmost value that Reliance Industries Ltd and its associate BP plc are entitled to for the gasoline they produce from deepsea blocks comparable to KG-D6.
The rise in gasoline value is prone to end in a 10-11 per cent rise in CNG and piped cooking gasoline charges in cities comparable to Delhi and Mumbai, business sources mentioned.
It can additionally lead an increase in price of producing electrical energy however customers could not really feel any main pinch because the share of energy produced from gasoline could be very low.
Equally, the price of producing fertiliser may also go up however as the federal government subsidises the crop nutrient, a rise in charges is unlikely.
On the final revision in April this 12 months, charges paid to ONGC had been left unchanged at $1.79, whereas the deepsea gasoline value was minimize from $4.06 per mmBtu to $3.62.
A $1 improve in gasoline value ends in Rs 5,200 crore income for ONGC on an annualised foundation. After accounting for taxes and different levies, it interprets into Rs 3,200-3,300 crore in EBDITA for the corporate, sources mentioned.
Gasoline costs had been final raised in April 2019 and have since solely fallen because of a drop in international benchmark charges.
Whereas the federal government units the value of gasoline produced by ONGC from fields given to it on a nomination foundation, it bi-annually declares a cap or most value that operators who received exploration acreage underneath licensing rounds can get.
The operators are speculated to do a market value discovery by searching for bids from customers however that charge is topic to the value ceiling introduced by the federal government, sources mentioned.
Reliance-BP had within the latest value discovery for brand new gasoline from their Krishna Godavari basin block, obtained charges of over $6 per mmBtu.
“The worth of home pure gasoline for the interval October 1, 2021, to March 31, 2022, is $2.90 per mmBtu on Gross Calorific Worth (GCV) foundation,” PPAC mentioned.
Equally, “the value ceiling” for gasoline produced from “discoveries in deepwater, ultra-deepwater and excessive pressure-high temperature areas” is $6.13 per mmBtu, it mentioned.
Pure gasoline value is about each six months — on April 1 and October 1 — annually based mostly on charges prevalent in surplus nations such because the US, Canada and Russia in a single 12 months with a lag of 1 quarter.
So the value for October 1 to March 31 relies on the typical value from July 2020 to June 2021.
The sources mentioned gasoline costs had fallen when the pandemic broke out however recovered later as demand picked up.
The latest spurt in charges will get mirrored in costs that turn into efficient from April subsequent 12 months.
The gasoline value fastened within the final couple of years was unremunerative for producers because it was approach under the price of manufacturing.
ONGC, the sources mentioned, had posted a Rs 4,272 crore loss on gasoline enterprise in 2017-18, which widen to over Rs 6,000 crore in fiscal April 2020 to March 2021.
ONGC had been incurring losses on the 65 million customary cubic metres per day of gasoline it produces from home fields shortly after the federal government in November 2014 launched a brand new gasoline pricing components that had “inherent limitations” because it was based mostly on pricing hubs of gasoline surplus nations such because the US, Canada, and Russia.
The sources mentioned ONGC in a latest communique to the federal government has acknowledged that the break-even value to provide gasoline from new discoveries was within the vary of $5-9 per mmBtu.
The Congress-led UPA had accepted a brand new pricing components for implementation in 2014 that will have raised the charges however the BJP-led authorities scrapped it and introduced a brand new components.
The brand new components takes under consideration the volume-weighted annual common of the costs prevailing in Henry Hub (US), Nationwide Balancing Level (the UK), Alberta (Canada), and Russia with a lag of one-quarter.
The speed on the first revision, utilizing the brand new components, got here to $5.05 however within the subsequent six-monthly critiques saved falling until it touched $2.48 for April 2017 to September 2017 interval.
Subsequently, it rose to $3.69 in April 2019-September 2019 earlier than being minimize in subsequent rounds to $1.79.



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