Companies such as Oil & Natural Gas Corp and Reliance Industries will be the biggest beneficiaries, if the government raises domestic natural gas prices next week.
Indian government may raise domestic natural gas prices to its highest level in two years, PTI reported on Thursday citing sources close to the development.
Price paid to most of natural gas produced from domestic fields is likely to be hiked to $3.06 per million British thermal unit (mmbtu) from April 1, from current $2.89, the report said.
The move, if implemented, will translate into higher compressed natural gas (CNG) price and increase cost of electricity and urea production.
For every one dollar rise in natural gas price, state-run ONGC's annual net revenue increases by Rs 4,000 crore and net profit by Rs 2,300 crore.
The impact on oil-to-telecom conglomerate Reliance Industries' profitability is not likely to be as significant given the company's low gas production of about 4.9 million metric standard cubic meters per day.
While the increase in gas price will boost earnings of producers, it will also lead to a rise in CNG price and natural gas piped to households.
As per the new gas pricing formula, gas prices are to be revised every six months based on average rates in gas-surplus nations like the U.S., Russia and Canada.
Gas price was last hiked to $2.89 per mmbtu for October 2017 to March 2018 period from $2.48 earlier, which was the first hike in nearly three years.
