State-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corp.
State-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corp. (ONGC) has sent an urgent message to the petroleum ministry, saying the natural gas prices according to a formula approved by the NDA government was not viable to develop its KG basin discoveries.
ONGC plans to invest multi-billion dollars in bringing to production its Krishna Godavari (KG)-basin oil and gas discoveries by 2018-19.
“We have requested the government for the revi-ew of gas prices because at these prices the gas development is not viable,” ONGC chairman and MD Dinesh K Sarraf told reporters here.
The BJP-led government had in October 2014 approved a new pricing formula based on average rate prevailing in gas surplus countries for domestically produced natural gas.
The rate, according to this formula, comes to $4.24 per million British thermal unit currently.
This price, he said, is not enough to support huge investment for deve-loping the gas finds, most of which are in deepsea and difficult areas.
