Shares of RIL, GAIL & Gujarat Gas gain 2-4% as 9th round of City Gas Distribution Scheme gets un

Reliance Industries�(RIL), Aegis Logistics, GAIL and Gujarat Gas rallied 2-4 percent intraday on Tuesday as the bidding for the ninth round of City Gas Distribution Scheme closes later today.

Oil marketing companies (OMCs) has put their bids aggressively under 9th round of City Gas Distribution (CGD) Scheme and 10 new companies have also shown interest in city gas distribution, reports CNBC-TV18 quoting unnamed sources.

Sources further said bids by OMCs will be evaluated between July 12-18.

Petroleum and Natural Gas Regulatory Board (PNGRB) expects to award CGD contracts well before October schedule and expects atleast one bid in all 86 geographical areas. 60 geographical areas will have multiple bids, sources added.

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Meanwhile, India Gas Solutions Pvt Ltd, the 50:50 JV of UK's BP plc and Reliance Industries, is making its maiden foray in city gas distribution as it put in bid for 15 cities, reports PTI quoting sources.

Indraprastha Gas (IGL), which retails CNG in the national capital region, is also putting in bids for 13 cities, they said. Essel Infraprojects has put in a total of seven bids.

Bidding for the biggest city gas distribution licensing round, offering 86 permits for selling CNG and piped cooking gas in 174 districts in 22 states and union territories, closes this evening.

As many as 86 geographical areas (GAs), made by clubbing adjacent districts, are on offer in the 9th city gas distribution (CGD) bidding round. The GAs cover 24 percent of the country's area and 29 percent of its population.

The round is likely to attract investments of Rs 70,000 crore, according to the Petroleum and Natural Gas Regulatory Board (PNGRB).

The government is targeting to raise the share of natural gas in primary energy basket to 15 percent from 6 percent at present, within a few years.

The bid round is also aimed at meeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi's target of giving piped cooking gas connection to 1 crore households, roughly triple the current size, by 2020.

The CGD licences on offer are for Bhopal in Madhya Pradesh; Ahmednagar in Maharashtra; Ludhiana and Jalandhar in Punjab; Barmer, Alwar and Kota in Rajasthan; Coimbatore and Salem in Tamil Nadu; Allahabad, Faizabad, Amethi and Rai Bareli in Uttar Pradesh; Dehradun in Uttarakhand and Burdwan in West Bengal.

At 14:42 hours IST, the stock price Aegis Logistics was trading up 3.62 percent at Rs 236.25, GAIL India up 3.82 percent at Rs 360.50, Gujarat Gas up 1.29 percent at Rs 753 and Reliance Industries rallied 2.65 percent at Rs 1,022 on the BSE.

However, oil marketing companies' share prices are under pressure as sources said piped natural gas (PNG) and compressed natural gas (CNG) distribution in cities may affect OMCs' LPG & retail fuel business.

At 14:42 hours IST, the stock price of Bharat Petroleum Corporation was down 0.29 percent at Rs 375.25, Hindustan Petroleum Corporation down 0.99 percent at Rs 269.60 and Indian Oil Corporation down 0.67 percent at Rs 156.35.

Mahanagar Gas was also trading down 1.62 percent at Rs 819.05 and Indraprastha Gas down 0.83 percent at Rs 263.45.

Disclosure: Reliance Industries Ltd. is the sole beneficiary of Independent Media Trust which controls Network18 Media & Investments Ltd.

(With inputs from PTI) First Published on Jul 10, 2018 03:18 pm