India notifies domestic natural gas prices for April — These are the stocks you should watch for

Shares of Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Ltd. (ONGC) and Oil India Ltd. gained on Wednesday, April 1, after the Centre's notification of domestic natural gas price for April 2026.

The Centre has notified the domestic natural gas price for April to be $10.76 metric million British thermal units (MMBTU) on a gross calorific value (GCV) basis.

For natural gas produced by the nominated fields of ONGC, Oil India, the administered price mechanism (APM) price will be capped at $7/MMBTU for April 2026.

In March, the natural gas price were set at $6.81 MMBTU and capped at $6.75/MMBTU for the nominated fields of ONGC and Oil India.

The price cap on difficult fields for the April-September period has been fixed at $8.9 per MMbtu.

The Centre's latest notification is for the domestic natural gas price is valid up to April 30, 2026.

At the current prices, OMCs are incurring under recovery of 380 per cylinder, The Union Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas said in a post on X. It said cumulative losses by May end will reach around 40,484 crore. Last year as well, of the total losses of 60,000 crore, as much as 30,000 crore was absorbed by oil PSUs and the remaining 30,000 crore by the Centre, in order to insulate Indian citizens from high international LPG prices, the ministry's post added.

The government's latestnotification came just as US President Donald Trump signalled at a possible conclusion to the Iran war soon. The month-long Iran-US-Israel war in West Asia  has resulted in an energy crisis, supply issues as Iran blocked the Strait of Hormuz. This has resulted in a global market sell-off in the past month and a sharp rise in commodity prices including oil and gold.

On another note, the aviation turbine fuel (ATF) price for non-scheduled carriers, charters for April has been increased by 115% to ₹2.07 lakh/KL to ₹96,000/KL in March. The price of a 19 kg LPG gas cylinder has also been increased by ₹195.5 in Delhi and by ₹218 in Kolkata, with effect from April 1.

Shares of ONGC and Oil India were trading up 1.6% up around 11.15 am on Wednesday. While ONGC shares have risen 2.6% in the past month, Oil India shares have declined 2.6%.

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