13 January 2014
Oil & Gas | Update
Oil & Gas
MoPNG notifies gas price hike; Big positive for domestic gas producers
Maintain Buy on ONGC and OINL; Neutral on GAIL and RIL
Event:
The Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas
(MoPNG) has finally notified (long awaited) the
Domestic Natural Gas Pricing Guidelines, 2014. The
notified domestic gas pricing methodology is in line
with the Rangarajan Committee’s gas price formula and
implies new gas price at ~USD8.4/mmbtu v/s the current
USD4.2/mmbtu. The formula is applicable from 1 April
2014 (FY15) and will be valid for five years. Further, gas
prices will be revised quarterly. The gas price hike will
be applicable to ONGC/OINL nominated fields, shale
gas and coal bed methane (CBM). For RIL, the hike is
subject to its furnishing a bank guarantee.
Power and Fertilizer sectors. If ONGC/OINL do not
have to bear the subsidy, then our EPS estimates
would further increase by ~15%.
RIL might have to cross one more hurdle:
It seems
RIL would have to cross one more hurdle, as the
Supreme Court is scheduled to hear the case
against the government decision to give gas price
hike to RIL. The case has been filed by CPI MP, Mr
Gurudas Dasgupta and an NGO. The hearing is
scheduled on 4 March 2014.
FY15E earnings sensitivity: ONGC/OINL biggest beneficiaries
of gas price change
Our view
Big positive for domestic gas producers:
The gas
price hike would be earnings accretive for gas
producers like ONGC, OINL and RIL. However, it
would be negative for gas consumers like Power,
Fertilizer and City Gas Distribution (CGD)
companies. The impact on GAIL (consumes gas to
produce LPG and petchem) will depend on the
subsidy respite. Also, prima facie, the hike is
negative for IGL, but historically, it has passed on
the increases in its gas costs.
Prices to be revised quarterly based on formula:
Depending on the underlying gas prices, domestic
gas prices would change quarterly and could vary
between USD8-9/mmbtu in FY15. Price for each
quarter would be the trailing 12-month average
price, with a lag of one quarter (the price for April-
June 2014 would be calculated based on the
average for the 12 months ended December 2013).
Conservatively model gas price of USD6.3/mmbtu,
assuming 50% subsidy to Power and Fertilizer
sector:
There could be an upside to our numbers
for ONGC/OINL. We have conservatively modeled
gas price of just USD6.3/mmbtu (v/s expected
USD8.4/mmbtu) from FY15, assuming that 50% of
incremental price would be given as subsidy to
*Base case highlighted
Valuation and view
We maintain our positive stance on ONGC (Mkt Cap
USD39.2b, CMP INR284, TP INR383, 35% Upside, Buy)
and OINL (Mkt Cap USD4.5b, CMP INR465, TP INR640,
38% Upside, Buy), and are Neutral on GAIL (Mkt
Cap USD7.1b, CMP INR345, TP INR370, 7% Upside,
Neutral) due to near-term headwinds to its
transmission volumes.
Given the low gas volumes, RIL’s earnings have low
sensitivity to gas price increase. RIL (Mkt Cap
USD44.7b, CMP INR858, TP INR957, 12% Upside,
Neutral) would benefit over the longer term, when
its gas volumes increase in FY16; higher gas price is
also likely to result in increase in its reserves.
Harshad Borawake
(HarshadBorawake@MotilalOswal.com); +91 22 3982 5432
Kunal Gupta
(Kunal.Gupta@MotilalOswal.com); +91 22 3982 5445
Investors are advised to refer through disclosures made at the end of the Research Report.