The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs on Wednesday approved ‘natural gas marketing reforms’ with an aim to standardise the procedure to discover the price of gas sold in the market.
“The policy has also permitted affiliate companies to participate in the bidding process in view of the open, transparent and electronic bidding,” an official statement said. “This will facilitate and promote more competition in marketing of gas.”
It, however, added that rebidding would be needed in case only affiliates participated, and that there were no other bidders. The Centre said the policy would bring uniformity to the bidding process across various contractual regimes and policies to avoid ambiguity and contribute towards ease of doing business. “The policy will also grant marketing freedom to Field Development Plans of those Blocks in which Production Sharing Contracts already provide pricing freedom,” it added.
The government expects the move to spur production of, infrastructure for and marketing of natural gas, while also creating jobs in gas-consuming sectors, including in MSMEs.