Reliance Industries and ONGC plan to separately auction small quantities of natural gas with sharply different floor rates. RIL’s floor price is linked to crude oil and at the current rate of crude, would amount to $14 per mmBtu, while ONGC’s domestic gas price-linked floor is set at $4.5.
Reliance has sought bidders for 0.65 million metric standard cubic meters per day (MMSCMD) of natural gas from its coal bed methane field in Madhya Pradesh, while ONGC is auctioning 0.15 MMSCMD from a small field in Rajasthan. RIL’s auction is planned for March 1 and that of ONGC is slated for March 7.