Adani Total Gas, Indraprastha Gas, Mahanagar Gas: Why stocks of cooking gas suppliers are rising today

Shares of PNG, CNG and LNG suppliers such as Adani Total Gas Ltd , Indraprastha Gas and Mahanagar Gas rose up to 6% on Wednesday after the government announced incentives for city gas distributors to boost domestic connections of piped cooking gas. While Mahanagar Gas shares rose 5.43% to Rs 1171.05, Adani Total Gas stock gained 6.2%. Shares of another cooking gas supplier Indraprastha Gas Ltd were 5.72% on Wednesday.

The Centre is rolling out incentives for city gas distributors to accelerate the adoption of piped natural gas (PNG) among households as disruptions linked to the US-Iran conflict push up fuel import costs and put pressure on LPG supplies.

India, the world’s second-largest importer of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), is using the ongoing disruption in the cooking-fuel market to strengthen its domestic gas distribution infrastructure. The move is aimed at reducing the country’s dependence on imported LPG while also easing the financial burden of subsidies.

Under the new incentive programme, which will be effective from September, city gas distribution companies will receive an additional 200 standard cubic metres (SCM) of lower-cost domestically produced natural gas for every household they successfully convert to an active PNG consumer.

The benefit will apply once a household with a piped connection begins using the fuel and paying for its consumption. The incentive is intended to encourage distributors to activate existing but unused connections and expand pipeline networks to households that are yet to be connected.

According to the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, the scheme is designed to improve utilisation of the existing PNG network while encouraging city gas distributors to bring more households into the formal, paying customer base.

The government expects the initiative to support a faster transition from LPG cylinders to piped cooking gas, potentially helping curb import requirements and reducing pressure on subsidy expenditure.