Objective – To prescribe standard procedure to discover market price of gas to be sold in the market by gas producers, through a transparent and competitive process, permit Affiliates to participate in bidding process for sale of gas and allow marketing freedom to certain Field Development Plans (FDPs) where Production Sharing Contracts already provide pricing freedom.
Aim- to provide standard procedure for sale of natural gas in a transparent and competitive manner to discover market price by issuing guidelines for sale by contractor through e-bidding.
This will bring uniformity in the bidding process across the various contractual regimes and policies to avoid ambiguity and contribute towards ease of doing business.
- Affiliate companies permitted to participate in the bidding process This will facilitate and promote more competition in marketing of gas. However, rebidding will have to be done in case only affiliates participate, and there are no other bidders.
- Freedom to the Field Development Plans (FDPs) of those Blocks in which Production Sharing Contracts already provide pricing freedom.
It will deepen following areas:-
- The whole eco-system of policies relating to production, infrastructure and marketing of natural gas has been made more transparent with a focus on ease of doing business.
- These reforms will prove very significant for Atmanirbhar Bharat by encouraging investments in the domestic production of natural gas and reducing import dependence.
- These reforms will prove to be another milestone in moving towards a gas based economy by encouraging investments.
- The increased gas production consumption will help in improvement of environment.
- These reforms will also help in creating employment opportunities in the gas consuming sectors including MSMEs.
- The domestic production will further help in increasing investment in the downstream industries such as City Gas Distribution and related industries.
The Government has taken transformative reforms in the upstream sector with a view to make investment easier focusing on ease of doing business. The Open Acreage Licensing Policy (OALP) which is investor driven acreage auction process, has increased substantial acreages in the country. Government brought a series of reforms in Gas sector and as a result investment of more than Rs. 70,000 crore is being made in the East coast. Gas production from East coast will contribute to Atmanirbhar Bharat by meeting increasing energy needs of the country.
In February 2019, Government implemented major reforms in upstream sector and brought paradigm shift by focusing on production maximization. Acreages under OALP rounds are being allocated based on work programme only in Cat II and Cat III basins.
The domestic gas production has complete marketing and pricing freedom. All discoveries and field development plans approved after 28 Feb, 2019 have complete market and pricing freedom.
