Govt to review gas pricing policy soon: FM

01 Mar 2013 Evaluate

After listening to the complains of oil firms like BP Plc for artificially low gas rates in the country impeding investments, Finance Minister P Chidambaram, while presenting the Budget for 2013-14, said ‘the natural gas pricing policy will be reviewed and uncertainties regarding pricing will be removed’. Presently, domestically produced natural gas is priced at USD 4.2 per million British thermal unit, one-third of the imported cost.

A government appointed committee headed by C Rangarajan, which recently submitted its report, recommended pricing of domestically produced natural gas at an average of international hub prices and cost of imported LNG instead of present mechanism of market discovery. Further, the Rangarajan formula is the mean of weighted averages of the producer price of liquefied natural gas imports to India and the price prevalent in Europe, the US and Japan. This average comes to about USD 8-8.5 per mmBtu, half-way meeting expectations of companies of being allowed to charged a price equivalent to imported liquefied natural gas (LNG).

Oil Minister M Veerappa Moily has already accepted the recommendations and is moving Cabinet for a formal approval.

Further, finance minister said that the oil and gas exploration policy will be reviewed to move from profit sharing to revenue sharing contracts. While, the cost-recovery model of the New Exploration Licensing Policy (NELP) will help the operators to recover all their investment in successful as well as unsuccessful wells from sale of oil and gas before sharing profits with the government.

As per Finance Minister, awarded NELP blocks are currently stalled for defence and other clearances and will be cleared soon. The transition of prices of domestic natural gas to import parity similar to the diesel price reforms will help to build a sustainable gas market in the country.

Chidambaram also said a policy to encourage exploration and production of shale gas will be announced. The government is planning to launch its first auction of shale gas block by 2013-end on terms that are expected to be remarkably different from bid rounds for oil and gas blocks. Shale gas or natural gas trapped in sedimentary rocks (shale formations) below the earth's surface is seen as a new alternative to conventional oil and gas for meeting growing energy needs.

While, the oil and gas sector is pleased as the government has expressed the need for a natural gas pricing policy, but got disappointment that Chidambaram has not removed the tax anomaly between branded and unbranded fuel, given that such fuel has been proved to increase engine efficiency and enhance its life, reducing consumption.

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