New Delhi: City Gas Distributors (CGDs) bought every unit of the domestic high pressure, high temperature (HPHT) gas that changed hands on the Indian Gas Exchange (IGX) in August. That gas made up 41.11 percent of everything traded on the platform during the month. All of it went to meet demand for domestic piped natural gas (D-PNG) and transport compressed natural gas (T-CNG), the exchange said in a statement issued on Monday.
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"Approximately 41.11 percent of the traded volume comprised of Domestic HPHT gas, all procured by CGDs for their D-PNG & T-CNG demand, while the remaining 58.89 percent was free market gas," IGX said.
The month's total traded volume came to 12.63 million MMBtu, or 318.33 million standard cubic metres (MMSCM), which IGX said was 102.85 percent higher than a year earlier and 8.57 percent above July. The exchange executed 317 trades over the month. Deliveries through the platform stood at 11.92 million MMBtu, equivalent to 9.69 million standard cubic metres per day (MMSCMD).
A separate tranche of domestic gas moved outside the ceiling-price category. "Nearly 40.09 MMSCM of domestic gas with pricing freedom was traded by private sector producers at Jaya, Hazira and Coal Bed Methane (CBM) block at Shahdol and by a public sector producer at Suvali and Bokaro CBM block," the statement said.
IGX's benchmark gas price index, GIXI, averaged Rs 2,102 per MMBtu (USD 22.02) in August. That is 14.43 percent above July and 107.30 percent above the same month last year.
The index does not cover the whole platform, and IGX says so in the statement. "The GIXI excludes LDC, ssLNG & domestic ceiling price gas traded at ceiling price," it said, using the abbreviations for long duration contracts and small-scale Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG). The free market gas that GIXI does track came to 7.43 million MMBtu in August, against the 12.63 million MMBtu traded in all.
Regional readings moved in the same direction. GIXI-West stood at Rs 2,118 per MMBtu, up 12.60 percent over July, while GIXI-East was at Rs 2,001 per MMBtu, up 14.94 percent. GIXI-Dahej came in at Rs 2,146 per MMBtu, 14.76 percent higher than the previous month.
Gas-based generation took a small share of the free market gas, and took most of it on the shortest contracts available. "Of the 7.43 Mn MMBtu of free market gas traded in August, the power sector accounted for 1.27 Mn MMBtu, with 63 percent of power sector volumes traded under Intraday and Day Ahead contracts," IGX said.
Two contract types traded for the first time at particular locations during the month. "August 2026 witnessed the execution of the first long duration contract trade in Shahdol and the first ssLNG trade in Kochi," the statement said.
IGX added three new proprietary members over the month, among them Green Gas Limited. The exchange runs 19 delivery points spanning LNG terminals, pipeline interconnection points and domestic gas field landfall points. "During the month, Dahej recorded the highest trade volumes in the Free Market category," it said.
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The platform offers 10 standardised delivery-based contracts, running from intraday and day-ahead through daily, weekday, weekly, fortnightly and monthly out to 12 months, alongside a balance-of-month contract and two long duration contracts of three and six months. These are linked to the GIXI, JKM, WIM and Dated Brent benchmarks. IGX operates under the regulatory framework of the Petroleum and Natural Gas Regulatory Board (PNGRB).