Oil & Natural Gas Corporation Ltd.

Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) is seeking a minimum price of $3.5-4 for the natural gas it plans to produce from coal seams in Jharkhand and a field in Tripura. ONGC has issued separate tenders seeking buyers of 0.02 million standard cubic meters per day of coal-bed methane (CBM) it plans to produce from the North Karanpura CBM block in Jharkhand and 0.1 mmscmd from Khubal field in Tripura.

ONGC has been complaining that the government-notified gas price is way below cost and the company incurs a loss of production and sale of natural gas from most of its fields. Its cost of production ranges from $4.5 to $9 per mmBtu for gas from different sources/fields.

ONGC is India’s largest government-run corporation and produces about 70% of India’s crude oil and natural gas. The corporation is the biggest public sector commercial organization in India.