State-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) has finalised sale of gas from its marginal fields at a price of USD 10.10-11.20 a unit, Oil Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said today.
The price that ONGC is getting for gas from its fields in Gujarat and Andhra Pradesh is almost double of the USD 5.61 per million British thermal unit rate that the government decided for all domestically produced gas.
In a written reply to a question in Rajya Sabha, Pradhan said ONGC has fianlised gas price through e-tendering for the marginal fields based on Government of India's guidelines for pricing of the fuel from small and marginal fields dated July 8, 2013.
Accordingly, ONGC has finalised a price of USD 10.10 per mmBtu for gas from Gamij-GGS-2 field and a rate of USD 11.10 per mmBtu for Gamij-GGS-3 field, both in Gujarat. For the Warosan-4 field in Mehsana basin of Gujarat, it has finalised a rate of USD 10.50 per mmBtu, he said.
In case of Triputallu, Kaza, Mandapeta-23, Gokarnapuram and Suyyaraopeta marginal fields in Andhra Pradesh, the firm has finalised a price of USD 11.20 per mmBtu.
Pradhan said based on the recommendations of Rangarajan Comittee Report, the previous UPA government had in January approved Domestic Natural Gas Pricing Guidelines, 2014.
According to this formula the gas price came to about USD 8.4 per mmBtu.
"The new (BJP) government subsequently decided that the whole issue of gas pricing would need comprehensive re-examination," he said adding a committee of secretaries was set up to comprehensively re-examine the whole issue.
Based on the recommendation of the committee, the government last month issued New Domestic Natural Gas Pricing Guidelines, 2014.
As per the new policy, the price of domestic natural gas applicable for the period November 1 to March 31, 2015 will be USD 5.05 per mmBtu on gross calorific value (GCV) basis and USD 5.61 on net calorific value (NCV) basis.
The previous rate of USD 4.2 per mmBtu was on NCV basis.
Pradhan said ONGC during April-September this year produced 10.98 billion cubic meters of gas and 1.1 million cubic meters of coal-bed methane or CBM gas which is produced from coal seams.
Oil India Ltd, the nation's second biggest state explorer, produced 1.37 bcm of gas in the same period, he added.
