The domestic production of natural gas declined 8.6 per cent year-on-year (yoy) to 2,414 million standard cubic metre (mmscm) during October 2020. Further, the production of crude oil, to the tune of 2.6 million tonnes (mt) during the month, also fell by 6.3 per cent as compared to the corresponding period last year.
During the first half of 2020-21, the domestic natural gas production declined by 12.9 per cent yoy to 13,939 mmscm as the operations became unviable for production companies due to lowered selling prices by the government. The gross production of domestic natural gas is further expected to fall by 10.6 per cent during 2020-21 as per the estimations by Care Ratings.
The demand for the natural gas in the domestic market is largely dependent on the fertiliser sector, followed by power, city gas distribution entities, refineries and petrochemicals industries.