New Delhi: India’s top oil and gas producer ONGC is likely to see its loss on natural gas sales widen by nearly 50 per cent to Rs 6,000 crore in the current fiscal after the government-mandated rates for the fuel dropped to a decade low. Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) had posted Rs 4,272 crore loss on gas business in 2017-18, which is likely to widen to over Rs 6,000 crore in the current fiscal (April 2020 to March 2021), sources said citing a company communique to the government.
The accounts for 2019-20 are yet to be finalised but the loss on gas business should be around Rs 4,500 crore.
ONGC has seen incurring losses on the 65 million standard cubic meters per day of gas it produces from domestic fields shortly after the government in November 2014 introduced a new gas pricing formula that had “inherent limitations” as it was based on pricing hubs of gas surplus countries such as the US, Canada, and Russia.
