PNGRB approves GAIL tariff for transporting natural gas

Oil regulator PNGRB has approved the tariff that state-run GAIL India will charge from consumers for moving natural gas through its two main trunk pipelines.

The Petroleum and Natural Gas Regulatory Board (PNGRB) last week allowed GAIL to charge four different distance-based tariffs on its Hazira-Vijaipur-Jagdishpur (HVJ) and Dahej Vijaipur pipelines.

GAIL will charge Rs 19.83 per million British thermal units to transport gas for the first 300 kilometres on the HVJ line. It will charge Rs 22.48 per mmBtu for the next 300-km zone, Rs 25.10 for zone-3 and Rs 27.70 per mmBtu for zone-4, PNGRB said in a order dated June 9.

The company will charge Rs 42.46 to Rs 59.32 per mmBtu over four zones on the Dahej-Vijaipur pipeline, it added.

PNGRB had, on April 19, approved a provisional levelised (or average) tariff of Rs 25.46 per mmBtu for the HVJ pipeline and Rs 53.65 per mmBtu for the Dahej-Vijaipur line.

The regulator had also approved the tariff for the East-West pipeline, which is majority-owned by Reliance Industries Chairman and Managing Director Mukesh Ambani.

Reliance Gas Transportation and Infrastructure's 1,395-km pipeline from Gadimoga near Kakinada in Andhra Pradesh to Bharuch in Gujarat ships gas from RIL's KG-D6 fields.

The 48-inch pipeline, the largest in Asia, has been divided into five zones of 300 km each, the PNGRB order stated.

The company will charge Rs 15 per mmBtu from customers such as Anil Ambani Group's Samalkot power plant, which will get RIL's KG-D6 gas in Zone-1 (Andhra Pradesh).

For zone-2 and 3, the tariff has been fixed at Rs 42 per mmBtu and Rs 53.69 per mmBtu respectively, but there are very few customers on this stretch.

For zone-4, falling in Maharashtra, the tariff has been fixed at Rs 58.75 per mmBtu. Rs 60.94 per mmBtu is the tariff that customers in Gujarat will pay to RGTIL, it said.

Most of the KG-D6 users are in Maharashtra and Gujarat.

PNGRB had, on April 19, approved a provisional levelised (or average) tariff of Rs 52.23 per mmBtu for the pipeline, which can transport 80 million standard cubic metres of gas per day when all the 10 compressors are installed.

RGTIL, which charges Rs 15 per mmBtu for transporting gas in zone-1 and Rs 61.77 per mmBtu for states between Andhra Pradesh and Gujarat, had sought a levelised tariff of Rs 53.64 per mmBtu.