'Natural gas prices may be revised soon'

New Delhi, March 22 : Prices of natural gas from fields of state-run ONGC and Oil India may be revised soon, Petroleum Secretary S. Sundereshan said here Monday.

"The minister (for petroleum and natural gas, Murli Deora) just now told me that it is in the final stages of decision making in the government. So the decision could be there very soon," he told reporters at the sixth Asia Gas Partnership Summit.

The petroleum ministry had proposed the hiking of price of the gas under administered pricing mechanism from USD 1.79 per million British thermal unit to USD 2.32 per mmBtu.

The price of gas produced from fields given on nomination basis to ONGC and OIL was last revised in 2005.

Sundereshan also said that the government was working very seriously to end the differential pricing of gas in different parts of the country, irrespective of source.

"We are trying to find out how best all parts of the country get gas at approximately the same price," he said, adding: "This will not take weeks, but months".