India’s natural gas production dropped by almost one-fifth in April due to lower offtake by industries in the nationwide coronavirus lockdown, according to data released on Saturday.
Gas output at 2.16 billion cubic meters (bcm) in April was 18.6 per cent lower than 2.65 bcm production in the same month a year back, the oil ministry’s data showed.
Lower production was due to a 15.3 per cent drop in output by the country’s top producer ONGC at 1.72 bcm.
“The shortfall in gas production (by ONGC) is primarily due to less gas offtake by consumers due to Covid-19 lockdown,” it said.