India Announces 10th City Gas Bid Round Results
Indian downstream regulator Petroleum and Natural Gas Regulatory Board (PNGRB) February 26 announced the results of the 10th city gas distribution (CGD) bidding round.
The 10th round was launched in November last year. The 50 geographical areas that were open for bidding cover 124 districts in 14 states, 18% of India’s geographical areas and 24% of its population.
PNGRB received 225 bids for the 50 geographical areas on offer and has now issued letters of intent (LoI) to the 12 successful entities, it said.
State-owned Indian Oil Corporation has won licences for 10 areas, mostly in the eastern Indian states of Bihar and Jharkhand. Indian Oil won nine licences on its own and one in a joint venture with Adani Gas.
Another state-owned firm Hindustan Petroleum won rights for nine areas in states of Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal. A consortium of AG&P LNG Marketing and Atlantic, Gulf & Pacific Company of Manila also won licences for nine areas in states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, and Kerala.
Gujarat Gas won rights for six areas while Gail Gas, a unit of state-owned Gail, won rights for four. Indraprastha Gas and Torrent Gas were awarded licences to retail gas for three areas each while Adani Gas and Bharat Gas Resources, a subsidiary of state-owned Bharat Petroleum, bagged two cities each, PNGRB said.
The winners shall be required to lay, build, operate or expand the CGD networks to meet requirement of natural gas in domestic, commercial and industrial segments including natural gas in the vehicular segment.
The ninth bidding round, which was concluded last year, also received a very strong response from the industry. During this round 86 areas covering 174 districts in 22 states and union territories were open for bidding. Technical bids were opened by PNGRB in July 2018. A total of 406 bids were received for the 86 areas; and 35 entities participated in the process. Private sector firm Adani Gas won the highest number of licences.