IOC-Adani JV to bid for CNG retail projects

State-run Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) and Adani Energy will bid together for setting up projects to retail compressed natural gas (CNG) to automobiles and piped cooking gas to households in six cities.

"The joint venture company we are forming with IOC will bid for city gas projects in Mathura, Meerut (in Uttar Pradesh), Sonepat (in Haryana), Kakinada (in Andhra Pradesh), Dewas and Kota (in Madhya Pradesh)," Adani Group CEO (Gas Business) Rajeev Sharma said.

IOC and Adani had recently signed a memorandum of understanding for setting up a 50:50 joint venture company to pursue city gas projects.

State-run GAIL India and billionaire Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries are also likely to bid for majority of the six cities that the oil regulator Petroleum and Natural Gas Regulatory Board (PNGRB) has put on auction.

Bids for the six cities close next month.

Companies would have to indicate the number of households companies propose to connect in the next five years, the number of CNG-dispensing outlets they propose to set up, the inch-kilometre of pipeline they would lay and the gas they would sell.

Sharma said Adani currently sells some 25,000 kg of CNG in Vadodara, Gujarat every day. It also has operations in Ahmedabad and plans to set up city gas projects in Lucknow, Noida, Faridabad and Gurgaon.