New Delhi: State-owned Indian Oil Corp (IOC) has won licences to retail gas in 10 cities while Hindustan Petroleum Corp Ltd (HPCL) won rights for nine towns as oil regulator PNGRB announced winners for the 10th City Gas Bid round.
IOC won city gas distribution licences for nine cities, most of them in Bihar and Jharkhand, on its own and one in a joint venture with Adani Gas, according to a press statement issued by Petroleum and Natural Gas Regulatory Board (PNGRB).
HPCL, a subsidiary of state-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC), won licences to retail CNG to automobiles and piped natural gas to households in nine cities in Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal.
A little known consortium of LNG Marketing Pvt Ltd and Atlantic Gulf & Pacific Company of Manila Inc won rights for nine cities in Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, and Kerala. Gujarat Gas Ltd won rights for six cities while GAIL India’s subsidiary GAIL Gas Ltd won rights for four. Indraprastha Gas Ltd and Torrent Gas won rights for three cities each while Adani Gas and Bharat Gas Resources Ltd, a subsidiary of state-owned Bharat Petroleum Corp Ltd (BPCL), bagged two cities each.
This is the second auction in a row that IOC has dominated. In the previous ninth bid round, IOC had won licences for eight cities on its own and another nine in a joint venture with Adani Gas.
“225 bids from 25 entities were received up to February 5, 2019, ie, the bid closing date (for the 10th round). Based upon the bids evaluations, PNGRB in its 88th board meeting held on February 26, 2019, approved the issuance of Letters of Intent (LoI) to the 12 successful entities for 50 GAs,” the PNGRB statement said.
Prior to this, city gas distribution (CGD) licences had been given for 178 GAs covering 280 districts (263 complete and 17 part) spread over 26 states and UTs. These cover about 50 per cent of India’s population (as per 2011 census) and 35 per cent of its geographical area, the statement added.
PTI