Commercial LPG price hiked by ₹250 per cylinder

New Delhi: Oil marketing companies (OMC) have hiked the price of 19 kg commercial LPG cylinder by around ₹250 with immediate effect.

In the national capital, the 19 kg commercial cylinder now costs ₹2,253 in Delhi against the previous level, ₹2,003.50 per cylinder. In Mumbai, commercial LPG price was hiked to ₹2,205 from ₹1,954.50 per cylinder.

Further, Indraprastha Gas Ltd on Friday increased the prices of compressed natural gas in Delhi by 80 paise to ₹60.81 per kg. The increase comes just a week after the company raised CNG prices by Re 1.

The increase in prices comes on the back of the increase in global energy prices amid the Ukraine crisis and supply concerns.

On Thursday, Centre increased the price of natural gas produced in the country by more than two-fold for April-September period of FY23.

The price of domestic natural gas for the first half of FY23 has been fixed at $6.10 per million British thermal unit (mmBtu) from $2.90 per mmBtu for the second half of FY22.

Hetal Gandhi, Director, CRISIL Research said that the hike in the price of the locally produced expected to impact city gas distribution (CGD) entities as it will push up domestic prices of CNG and PNG.

"We do not expect any substantial demand erosion from the transportation sector as CNG will still be competitive compared with petrol and diesel," he said.

On March 22, OMCs have raised the prices of non-subsidised LPG cylinders by ₹50 after a gap of over months taking the price of the 14.2-kilogram non-subsidised cylinder in Delhi to ₹949.50.

A recent report by Crisil said that domestic demand for natural gas is seen rising 12-14% next fiscal, despite prices remaining high for the past several months because of economic recovery and lower-than-usual inventories in key European consumption centres.

Russia accounts for 17% of global gas output, and its pipeline through Ukraine caters to more than a third of European gas demand. The sanctions on Russia by the US, UK and the European Union have fueled concerns over energy supplies from the country.

A report by Kotak Securities said that Russian gas major Gazprom halted gas shipments to Germany through the Yamal-Europe pipeline and volumes started flowing in reverse on Friday.

"Reversal of gas flows was in line with President Putin’s warning to foreign buyers to pay for Russian gas in roubles from Friday or else have their supplies cut. This only adds to European gas crisis and may lead to power rationing as already anticipated by Germany," it said.