Indian Gas Exchange (IGX) has secured authorization from the Petroleum and Natural Gas Regulatory Board (PNGRB) to operate as a Gas Exchange. IGX is India’s first automated delivery-based gas trading platform. IGX has secured the necessary authorization to operate as a Gas Exchange as per the provisions of the PNGRB (Gas Exchange) Regulations, 2020 for a period of 25 years. According to the statement, the regulations were notified by the PNGRB on September 28, 2020. IGX had submitted its application for authorization on October 8, 2020.
D K Sarraf, Chairperson, PNGRB, said, “With this development, IGX has become the first regulated gas exchange in the country. The Exchange will play an instrumental role in transparent discovery of gas prices, accelerate investments in the value chain, aid in capacity utilization of pipelines as well as boost consumer confidence and in turn increasing gas demand in the country.”
India is eying to increase the share of gas in its overall energy mix from 6% to 15% by 2030.
S N Goel, Chairman, IEX & Director, IGX, said, “This is a landmark development not just for IGX but for the overall gas sector and economy at large. The market mechanism will create competitive markets to benefit the end consumers with competitively priced gas and cost-effective price signals, will facilitate demand growth thereby leading to development and investments in upstream and downstream parts of the value chain.”
IGX currently offers trade in five contracts namely: Daily, Weekly, Weekday, Fortnightly and Monthly at three physical hubs at Hazira and Dahej in Gujarat and KG Basin in Andhra Pradesh. They have since received encouraging response from all stakeholders and will shortly commence trading with over 500 registered clients and 14 members. Since its launch on June 15, 2020, the platform has cumulatively traded 74,600 MMBTU (Metric Million British Thermal Unit).
