Ladies and gentlemen, good day, welcome to the Mahanagar Gas Limited Q4 FY 2026 earnings conference call hosted by Elara Securities. As a reminder, all participant lines will be in listen-only mode, and there will be an opportunity for you to ask questions after the presentation concludes. Should you need assistance during the conference call, please signal an operator by pressing star then zero on your touchtone phone. Please note that this conference has been recorded. I now hand the conference over to Mr. Gagan Dixit. Thank you, and over to you, sir.
Yes, thank you. A very warm welcome to everyone to discuss Mahanagar Gas Q4 FY 2026 results. It is our pleasure to be able to bring to you the management of Mahanagar Gas, led by Mr. Praveer Kumar Srivastava, Managing Director, Mr. Ajay Sinha, Deputy Managing Director, Mr. Rajesh Patel, Chief Financial Officer, and Mr. Rajesh Wagle, Senior Vice President, Marketing. With this, I would now hand over the conference to the Mahanagar Gas management. Over to you, sir.
Very good afternoon, welcome to the earnings call of Mahanagar Gas Limited for the fourth quarter of the financial year 2025, 2026. I would like to thank you all for attending our earnings call today. Due to the supply disruptions arising from the recent ongoing geopolitical crisis in Iran and wider Gulf region, which has adversely impacted LNG facilities and created significant challenges in the global LNG supply chains, particularly cargoes routed through the Strait of Hormuz, our 100% DPNG and major part of CNG requirement is supported by domestically produced gas, ensuring 100% supply to these customers. Gas supplies to industrial and commercial customers is partly curtailed. Prices may be affected due to global indices in the near term. They are expected to improve over time. MGL continues to create CGD infrastructure across its business segments in the license area.
During the quarter, 143,997 domestic households were connected, and thus we have established connectivity for nearly 3.21 million households. We have laid 138.48 km of steel and PE pipeline, taking the total length to over 8,320.43 km. We added 28 CNG stations during this quarter, and with this we have 518 stations as on March 31, 2026. We added 334 industrial and commercial customers during this quarter. As on March 31, 2026, we have 5,924 industrial and commercial customers.
During the quarter, there is an addition of 34,854 CNG vehicles, and now we have more than 1.28 million CNG vehicles registered in our geographies as of 31st March 2026. During the year, 342,157 domestic households were connected, and thus the company have established connectivity for nearly 3.21 million households. We have laid 499 km of steel and PE pipeline, taking the total length to over 8,320 km. We also added 52 CNG stations during the year, and with this we have 580 stations as on 31st March 2026. We also have added 872 industrial and commercial customers during the year.
Therefore, as on March 31, 2026, we have 5,924 industrial and commercial customers. We have added 118,590 vehicles during the year, and the total vehicle as on March 31, 2026, is 1,284,828. Coming to MGL's operation during the quarter, we achieved overall average sales volume of 4.672 MMSCMD as against 4.620 MMSCMD in the previous quarter, which is an increase in 1.12%. Current quarter volumes consist of CNG volume of 3.349 MMSCMD, DPNG volume of 0.605 MMSCMD, and 0.719 MMSCMD of gas was supplied to the industrial and commercial customers.
Compared to the corresponding quarter of last year, average overall sales volume has increased from 4.402 to 4.672 MMSCMD, which is an increase of 6.15%. Sales volume of CNG has increased from 3.125 MMSCMD to 3.349 MMSCMD, which is an increase of 7.12%. Sales for domestic DPNG have increased from 0.591 MMSCMD to 0.605 MMSCMD, which is an increase of 2.24%. In case of industrial and commercial, sales volume has increased from 0.686 MMSCMD to 0.719 MMSCMD, an increase of 4.87%.
Average gas sales for the current year ending 31st March 2026 is 4.585 MMSCMD, whereas it was 4.235 MMSCMD last financial year, which is an increase of 8.25%. Sales volume in the case of CNG has also increased from 3.047 MMSCMD to 3.67 MMSCMD, which is an increase of 7.2% volume. Volumes for domestic PNG has increased from 0.556 to 0.590 MMSCMD, which is an increase of 6.14%. In case of industrial and commercial, the volume have increased from 0.632 to 0.727 MMSCMD, which is an increase of 15.04%.
Our LNG supplies are disrupted due to West Asia crisis, and hence supply to industrial and commercial customers is curtailed to approximately 80% as per directives time to time, impacting the volumes adversely. Due to major impact of supply of LPG due to the crisis, government has taken all measures at the central and state level to push faster adoption of PNG, and this is a very positive move for the CGD sector in the long run, and MGL is going to seize this opportunity to roll out infrastructure and increase its volume. Net profit after tax for this quarter is INR 132 crore as compared to the previous quarter net profit after tax of INR 202 crore.
EBITDA from operations for the FY 2025, 2026 is INR 1,451 crore compared to previous financial year EBITDA of INR 1,570 crore. Net profit after tax for FY 2025, 2026 is INR 847 crore compared to net profit after tax for the previous financial year of INR 1,041 crore. I'm happy to announce that Board has approved a final dividend subject to the approval of shareholders at the AGM at the rate of 180%, that is INR 18 per equity share for the current financial year. Including interim dividend already paid at the rate of INR 12, total dividend is INR 30 per share for the FY 2025, 2026. With this, I conclude and would now like to open the floor for the questions.
Thank you very much for the patience.
Thank you. We'll now begin the question and answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask questions may press star and one on their touch tone telephone. If you wish to remove yourself from the question queue, you may press star and two. Participants are requested to use handset while asking a question. Ladies and gentlemen, we'll wait for a moment while the question queue assembles.
So from the-
The first question is from the line of Probal Sen from ICICI Securities. Please go ahead.
Thank you. Good afternoon, sir. I hope I'm audible.
Yeah, you are audible. Please go ahead, Probal.
Yeah. Sir, yeah, a few questions. Firstly, with respect to the supply disruptions, we understand from Petronet LNG also that Dahej utilization slipped to about 53% in March versus about a 108% average on January, February. In terms of our business, sir, did we also see this much of volatility in terms of our gas sales, especially in March? Can we just get a sense of how the business was in March?
As I think, MD already said in his opening remarks, as far as domestic PNG and CNG is concerned, 100% supply has been ensured because.
it's mostly 100% of the domestic PNG is through APM, which is locally produced.
As far as CNG is concerned, it is also majority is out of domestically produced, and balance was assured through pooled gas mechanism, which was announced, somewhere around 9th of March.
Industrial and commercial customer category has been concerned, roughly, you know, 80% supply was maintained, curtailing around 20%, within which probably some time to time directives have changed to ensure that, you know, small commercial restaurants, schools, colleges, crematorium, et cetera, should be supplied 100%. Wherever large industrial customers who can afford to, you know, switch to either alternate fuels or who can afford to pay higher market price prevailing at that time can be given. Overall, there was not much of an impact. Maybe after 9th of March, there were two, three days which were holidays, so there was no practical impact. Second fortnight, maybe-
Overall in the month of March, we lost about 1.25, 1.3 lakh SCMD out of let's say February average of 5.75. About 20%-22% volume we lost.
This is in case of industry.
This is in industry.
Industry. Excluding the commercial.
Commercial, we managed to maintain supplies because many of them were, you know, going to critical customers, hospitals.
canteens, messes of, you know, government institutions, schools, et cetera.
Right. Right.
Initially it was the large industries, where the supply was curtailed a bit.
However, wherever-
Sir. Sorry.
However-
Sorry, sir. Go ahead
was ready to take, you know, at the prevailing price, that also we have given. Under the normal, this, we curtail the supply to around 80%.
Yes.
And sir-
10 or 12 customers, industrial customers.
for whom gas supply was very critical.
Okay.
They had requested us for, you know, "You source any market price gas, we are okay." For them we managed to source a small volume separately and, you know, that they off took at a premium.
Got it. Sir, is it fair to assume that April, May has seen similar kind of volume and supply levels that we are seeing now, or has there been any change in the environment?
April is more or less similar as far as industry goes.
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
May, let's see. May have just started, but we're expecting maybe some small improvement to happen. Yeah.
Got it. The second question, sir, was with respect to sourcing mix. You already mentioned about domestic PNG and of course, most of CNG. If I can just get a little bit of granularity out of the 4.7 MMSCMD total sales, is it possible to sort of split out how much of, let's say domestic, I mean, APM and how much of Henry Hub link and how much of spot we sort of sourced it from for this quarter?
APM, which is anyway available 100% for domestic PNG.
as well as including CNG was, in the range of around 1.6 MMSCMD. Okay?
Okay.
NWG and pooled gas is another 0.73 or 0.75. Okay? HPHT.
Okay
We could source apart from the term contract, maybe through exchange, et cetera, which was in the range.
of around 0.9. Okay?
Okay.
HH, this I'm talking about March only, very specifically, not quarter.
Okay. March only. Got it. Okay.
There was a disruption only in March, okay?
Mm. Mm. Mm.
HH was curtailed to a slightly lower level.
Okay
to 50% of our 1.5 contracted quantity.
Okay
rely some for some quantity on spot as well. If you wish to know specifically for the quarter, maybe, you know. See, it will get averaged out.
Yeah, yeah. Yeah
small amount of pooled gas was there. Yeah.
No, I think.
So seven-
March is useful, sir. March is useful because that will probably be the sort of template for Q1, from what I understand, if the situation persists. This is fairly useful.
Yeah, you know, the pooled and NWG quantities are, you know, depending on availability, has been changing.
not able to, you know, give you any clue that the same level will continue in April or May or going forward.
I see.
The availability of gas, how things move, how the supplies, you know, come from them, this will keep on changing, and we have to live this time in uncertainty.
Right, sir. One last question, if I may. Any price changes envisaged on the CNG front in, going forward?
Sorry.
Is it something that we are looking at?
We have already taken a price increase on 22nd of April, INR 1. Okay?
Okay.
Let us see how does, you know, alternate fuel prices move, specifically for CNG, since you asked.
the call, definitely, we can sustain for, you know, some time.
cost. You know, if it is slightly longer or it sustains for a longer time, we will be considering appropriate price rise in CNG as well as in domestic PNG, if required. Compared to probably last quarter, definitely because of the Brent linked alternate fuels are already high, there is an improvement in the realization on I&C sector.
Because we follow alternate fuel link pricing. Yeah.
Right. Right. Perfect, sir. That is extremely useful. Thank you so much for your time. I'll come back if I have more questions.
Sure.
Thank you.
Thank you. A reminder to all participants that you may press star and one to ask question. The next question is from the line of Yogesh Patil from Dolat Capital. Please go ahead.
Thanks for an opportunity, sir. Sir, just continue with the previous participant question. APM, HPHT, NWG, HH, if we add up all them, it is giving closer to 4 MMSCMD only. Remaining was the spot. Is it a correct understanding?
We did sign some of the term contracts in the beginning of January. Some is also signed during April. Okay? Due to the disruption, the quantity may not come fully. Your understanding is correct, but spot is likely to be in the range of, you know, 0.4 or so, not 0.7 as you are expecting.
Okay. Fair enough, sir. Sir, recent price hikes in a DPNG and the CNG, how much % it has covered up the increase in gas cost of the last two months? Any broader idea, if you could give us?
Last two months?
I mean, we have seen the gas cost has gone up from March and the April only, if I'm not wrong. We have taken DPNG and the CNG price hikes in month of April. Just wanted to understand how much percentage of that increase in gas cost we have already covered up or the burden has already passed on to the consumer and the partial burden we have taken up. Any probable number if you could share?
See, if you consider, you know, domestic PNG, as you know, it is 100% through APM supplies. There is a INR 0.25 increase from 1st of April linked to this, whatever, Kirit Parikh committee circular. Okay. INR 0.25, plus there is upside in the cost due to exchange rate. Considering both this, we have taken a hike of INR 1.5 on 22nd April, 2026. Before that also there was some hike, but little earlier than this. So that more or less covers, you know, the DPNG increase. We also consider that, okay, the for some time exchange rate had spiked, but it could stabilize. We didn't wanted to take a complete hit, and we will watch out further how does exchange rate move from here.
As far as CNG is concerned, I think you can understand that it's a temporary volatile situation, there could be increase in the gas cost. As far as pricing is concerned, we would prefer to keep it in a stable manner, and we might absorb, you know, this short-term volatility. If it is stabilizes at a higher level, definitely we will take a call to increase price. Also considering, you know, how is the movement on alternate fuel, petrol, diesel, we will certainly take a call and do the pass-through. To be very specific to your answer, CNG, yes, since we have taken only INR 1 increase, and prior to that probably in February we took some increase, it's certainly not fully passed on.
Cost increase considering mixing of pooled gas and current Brent level, other gas prices have gone up, so it is not fully passed on. We consider that this is a short-term phenomenon. It should improve going forward.
Fair enough, sir. Sir, next question. As per the 9th March government notification, CGDs will get the supply based upon the last six months average sales volume. Now the question comes here, how are you managing the incremental growth in the CNG and the DPNG? Are we sourcing from the spot or you just mentioned about the recently contracted the LNG, which you are still not getting? Are you right now managing the incremental CNG sales and the DPNG sales volume through the spot?
You know, any term contract during this time can go under force majeure, whether recently signed or signed earlier. That impact was there on us as well. Okay? Definitely for CNG as well as domestic PNG, we might have to source some amount of spot.
Oh, okay, sir. Lastly, sequentially our other expenses has gone up. Is there any one-off item which has led to increase in other expenses?
You are referring year-over-year, I can tell you. CNG volumes have gone up by almost 8%, directly variable expenses like power and fuel, LCV transportation, dispensing charges, et cetera, have gone up in line with the volumes increase. Okay. Other than that, there is an increase of around INR 30 crore-INR 35 crore in case of employee salaries, which mainly consists of, you know, there is a provision, actual provision on account of new wage code, which is in the range of around INR 14 crore. Maybe in the same employee category there was a normal increment which consists of around INR 11 crore and some marginal increase on account of some staff welfare activity.
Other than that, miscellaneous OPEX is mainly repair, maintenance and some of the rent for the, you know, CNG plot or stores et cetera, which we have hired, and some of them are already commissioned, some of them work is still going on, has gone up. This is broadly is the breakup or reason for increase in the operating cost.
Thanks. Thanks a lot, sir, and all the best.
Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Vikash Kumar Jain from CLSA. Please go ahead.
Yeah, thanks for taking my questions. I have a couple of them. Firstly, sir, if you could give the breakup of commercial and industrial volume for this particular quarter. Where did it stand in terms of ML this year?
I think Mr. Wagle already said 0.57 was industry. If my total was 0.719, balance is commercial. Yeah.
Okay. 0.57.
This is for this quarter.
1.4 lakh, 1.5 lakh will be commercial.
Yeah. This is not a representative volume because despite demand we had to curtail. Even though we might have connected new customer, we have deferred because overall category was asked to be curtailed at 80%. Yeah.
Okay. Okay. I just want to understand. See, till March, honestly, there wasn't really so much of impact that you would have faced, because by the time the government put in those restrictions, it was more towards the latter part of March. Pricing increases for many contracts like New Well Gas, only happened later, right? Is it fair? At the same point of time, how does the After now that you're getting gas based on the allocations that everybody is at 80%, how does that work? I mean, are your old contracts still live? For example, the earlier contracts you had from Eni, are you still getting gas at the same price, or there is a pooled price at which you get the gas, you know, required?
I think my broad understanding, and probably that is the way, suppliers have worked, is, every contract has some supply or pay threshold or take- or- pay threshold, right?
For the purpose of pooled gas, over and above the supply or pay commitment has been pooled and given as a pool price to all the CGDs. Balance gas has definitely come to all of us. There is a caveat. If there is a force majeure. Even that can be reduced. As far as Q4 is concerned, we have got till up to supply-or-pay level, all the contract we have received the gas. As far as you are saying that, you know, impact of this crisis, not only at the 2nd of March, it was for the full second half of the March. Second fortnight we received full gas and part of the first fortnight as well. It started around 12th of March almost.
I would say two-third of the month of March was impacted, and 10 days or 11 days was normal.
No. For example, sir, CNG, I believe you said, correct me if I'm wrong, 0.7 MMSCMD is what you are using new well gas for.
No, no. No, no. I think Mr. Yogesh Patil from Dolat said the contract-wise and APM, what I gave numbers, totals to around 4. Where did you source balance 0.7? When he says balance 0.7, it is meant for all the categories-
Sure, sure.
not only for
What is the new well gas number that you said? Sorry, I missed taking that number.
New well gas, I said in the second fortnight was in the range of 0.4, more than, little more than 0.4.
Okay. That's about 10%, a little, 12% of your CNG requirement.
Yes
gas price has gone up by 70% or so, right? Like, it's now $14 or so, right now, for the month of May.
No, no, not really. Not really, not so much. It ranged maybe, you know, $11, $11.5 . Maybe it spiked a little bit in April, and then again it is looking down probably now. You see, Brent also went up and then came down, and Indian crude basket also went up and came down.
Okay. The May price is based on April price, right? I mean.
Yeah. Yes.
Okay. Okay.
No. In the price, no. The moment you change the weighted average source of gas, it may change. We are really not having any clue how does it get calculated.
Yeah. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. I get that.
Yeah.
Sure. In terms of your blended price of raw material, that has gone up considerably in April/May as compared to where it was in March, right? Is that correct?
Certainly, yes. If pool gas hovers between $11-$13, and other indices are also up. The earlier quarter we were below even the ceiling, and Brent was hovering $60-$65 kind of a thing. Now if Brent is at $90 or $100, there is going to be impact on the gas cost. Also exchange rate went up and slightly it has now come down, so that is saving a little bit.
Okay. Given all of this, what is your volume growth guidance for, say, FY 2027 and also your margin guidance, if any? Okay. As things normalize, do you maintain guidance beyond the war to be how it was historically? Could you repeat those numbers?
If you look at, you know, whatever blessings in disguise has happened due to this war, is circular or gazette notification dated 24th of March, where lot of, you know, functioning of CGD has been eased out. Also there is a reduction in the road reinstatement charges. Permissions are becoming faster. If you apply for a road digging permission and it is not received within specified time, you can, you know, assume it as a deemed permission and start your work. RI charges has been slashed down, and central has specified very lower RI charges. It will save on the cost. It will faster my network creation. We are very positive that there will be certainly very good boost to the volumes, especially in PNG industrial, I mean, domestic PNG industrial and commercial customers.
We'll be able to connect the customers faster, including even, you know, private societies where you have a neighboring society who was not giving earlier permission. According to that notification, even private property also they have to give permission or give reasoning. There are a lot of enablers which have come for CGD industry, and that will definitely, you know, put us on a fast track as far as laying pipeline and connecting the new customer is concerned. Our guess is if I have clocked 8.25 overall volume growth this year, it should be certainly more than that. We should be able to, you know, cross double-digit if this remains for a longer time and we are able to seize.
Of course, there are constraints in terms of how do you get the required amount of labor, plumbers, contractors to execute that work, okay. Because all the CGDs are eyeing for the same pool of resources as far as pipeline laying, abilities or the labor available in the country. Considering that, our view is if we do faster connection, volumes will be maintained or it will be increasing. Now coming to margins, I think it's a very difficult call as of today, because nobody knows how long this kind of a situation and supply of RLNG will improve. Our endeavor is if, you know, there is a room compared to the alternate fuels, we will be certainly trying to take the required price increase to pass through the gas cost impact.
Maybe our vision and endeavor could be we will maintain more than INR 8, a bit upper SCM, we'll have to consider multiple factor before we decide to do any price changes. However, one good factor is if Brent is remaining slightly higher, it is helping us in industrial commercial sector realization much better compared to earlier two quarters, I would say, where Brent was in the range of $65-$70, now it is at least $90-$100. Giving a number is really difficult as of now.
More than INR 8 in FY 2027.
Yeah.
will possibly mean an exit of closer to double-digit, right? First quarter is more or less in front of us, and that's going to be most likely lower than what the 4Q margins are. More than 8 average for FY 2027 will require a reasonably high margin exit for the year, right?
That's why I'm saying that it is very difficult to give a number. Our endeavor and let's hope that, you know, things normalize. I am saying that in the long run, this is gonna be a very good opportunity for MGL to create infrastructure and volume and margin both.
Our focus on increasing infrastructure and volumes will be at a slightly higher priority than, you know, maintaining margins. If we have to temporarily lose margins for gaining volumes, I think we're okay to do that because this, you know, margins can be changed pretty quickly. These kind of opportunities to, you know, grow infrastructure volume, they don't, I mean, they come pretty rarely.
Sure. Okay. Post war normalization margin guidance, sir.
See, another positive thing on margin is earlier, you had a lot of volatility in Henry Hub, whereas we have 1.5 contracted quantity, even if we are getting half of that at least. I hope that, you know, there is no force majeure, and we continue to get that, which has stabilized below USD 3. There is already a respite in terms of pricing of Henry Hub, which is almost, you know, 1/3 of our contracted quantity or a little more than 1/3 of our contracted quantity. There are multiple factors which are against and some are positive also, I'm saying.
Sure. Okay, sir. Thank you. Thanks for answering my questions.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Gaurav Jain from ICICI Prudential Mutual Fund. Please go ahead.
Sir, thank you for the opportunity. A couple of questions from my side. One is on the Henry Hub. The volume that we are getting is at HH linked and the earlier terms only, or is there some change in the pricing that we are getting it at? That is first. Second, sir, you mentioned somewhere that while you can add more commercial and industrial users, but you are not adding it currently because of the restriction of 80% of total gas in that sector or something. But we have the opportunity because there is demand. How does that tie? These are the two questions, sir.
First Henry Hub, it is formula. There can be change in the quantity. The formula and the pricing remains same linked to the index and whatever constant and the slope you have. There is no change for whatever supplies you are getting. Okay. What I said in case of industrial commercial connection is we will be connecting the customers faster, but because of the overall 80% curtailment of the volume, unless I get, you know, some market link volume and the customer is ready to take, volume may not increase.
Okay.
On the commercial side, there is a good potential for increase because, you know, the situation of LPG is not very good. A lot of demand is there for piped gas, even at a premium. We are getting a lot of registrations. I mean, previously we, you know, the registrations would number in hundreds. Now they're coming in thousands. With the ease of infrastructure laying, pipeline permissions, et cetera, we'll connect these customers. Overall commercial volumes are not that high. The government is also telling us that, you know, give uninterrupted supply to critical commercial customers who are involved in, you know, food and-
Small restaurants are falling in that critical customer category.
They are continuing to get their requirement, and that sector is growing very hard, high. It is only some large industries who are facing some curtailment, and that too, at present, I think, the curtailment level has reduced significantly.
Correct.
In the month of May. Hopefully, if that continues, we'll be back to our normal I&C volume growth.
Lastly, sir, on spot LNG, if you can highlight that at what price, from what region, how easy is the availability? I mean, whatever color you can give on the spot LNG availability for you and the country at large also, that will be helpful.
Spot LNG, we are sourcing through IGX or wherever we have a framework agreement with multiple suppliers, we keep on checking. If somebody has a quantity, we get it. That's the two mechanism through which we get spot LNG. As far as pricing, I think it is available in the public domain. It is ranging between, you know, $11.5 - $13, sometimes $14. That keeps on changing depending on the volumes available, depending on the time at which you are trying to approach the market.
Yeah. We don't source cargoes directly.
It is usually through aggregators.
Got it, sir. Thank you and all the best.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Amit Murarka from Axis Capital. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Hi, good evening, and thanks for the opportunity. When you say that you expect more than 10% growth in FY 2027, I think you also said that industrial is down 20%. Are you, like, expecting much higher growth from domestic PNG as well as CNG? If you could break out the expected growth rate, segment wise also.
I think, I would like to correct the understanding. What, what I said is, since, you know, infrastructure laying has been eased out and there is a demand increasing for PNG due to LPG curtailment, definitely we have a, you know, opportunity to connect more and more customers. Going forward, if we are able to work and lay the infrastructure and connect the customers, this year we have done 8%, we can definitely You know, if number of customers get added faster, we can achieve 10% volume. Okay. Not necessarily, I'm saying 2026, 2027.
The delta will probably come from pipe gas.
Yeah.
At the usual normal rate of growth.
Yeah.
Sure. pipe gas and, like, is it possible then that we add maybe lot of customers and maybe we get, like, 20% or higher growth rate in pipe gas volume this year? That seems like a real possibility.
If you see Industrial Commercial last year, I am saying 2024, 2025, we grew by 24%. This year also we have grown by 15%. With this happening, if our ability to lay and connect is faster because of lot of easement on the road digging permissions, et cetera, we expect that we will be able to do better than in the past.
Again, the one more caveat in it, because we are already into May now, the monsoon will start soon. Once the monsoon starts, then it's not going to be, you know, possible to lay too much infrastructure on public roads. Inside housing societies, inside industrial premises, yes, that work will continue. There would be some slow slowing in growth in, you know, June, July onwards once the rains hit.
Basically, you know, because of LPG dependence is very uncertain. There is a lot of demand for commercial LPG. Household, if you see the notification, wherever there is a gas connection available, if somebody is using LPG, that will not be allowed beyond 3 months, and he has to mandatorily opt for PNG. In our view, that will help us grow our domestic customers also, high compared to what we have done in the past. Okay. That will result in definitely volume growth.
Sure. I guess then CapEx would also be higher this year if you're looking to lay so much of your pipeline infrastructure.
Some CapEx may get reoriented. As Mr. Wagle said earlier, we will be focusing on laying of pipeline infrastructure and connecting the customer.
RI.
RI. There is a reduction in the RI cost substantially, so that will get saved. Overall there could be an increase, but not very substantial, because RI has almost by more than half.
Okay. What is the guidance that you'll give for CapEx then for 2027?
Certainly it will be whatever we have been giving, INR 1,200 crore range. It can be little more than that if we are able to do. You know See, as I also said, there is a constraint on the labor supply, plumbers, et cetera, because every CGD is now in the same situation. There's a lot of poaching for the resources happening. There could be some impact of, you know, this crisis on the availability of material also. Unless labor and material both are available, depending on the availability of both these, we will be definitely connecting more people and laying infrastructure.
Only one uncertainty which used to be there in the past on CapEx, which is will we get permissions or not?
That has gone away.
That has gone away.
Got it. Got it. Sure.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Bineet Banka from Nomura. Please go ahead.
Hi, sir. Thanks for the opportunity. Sir, the recently contracted volume that you talked about, which we signed in January and April, are these Brent linked?
Yes, Brent linked.
What is the logic of signing Brent linked contract when Henry Hub is, like, $3-$4 per MMBTU cheaper, I think?
These were contracted sometimes before. Okay?
Right.
-to balance our portfolio of industrial commercial supply with Henry Hub, we are more skewed towards Henry Hub. You know, in the shorter period, like one quarter or two quarters, things can move over and here and there. If you have balanced portfolio, it helps over a longer period of time.
Okay. sir, why was Henry Hub volume cut to 50% in March? Is it going to the pooled gas?
Yes. Must be going to the pooled gas. We don't get any this, our supply is cutted. Definitely, where will, you know, GAIL will get the gas? From all the term contracts which they have, they will pool by, you know, curtailing the supply to every buyer to the extent of supply-or-pay , and they'll put it to pool for supplying to CGD requirement. We do not know.
We don't have direct visibility on that. Difficult to answer.
Okay.
Any idea when this pooling mechanism will be discontinued? India is the cheapest source of gas for you, and this has been curtailed by 50%.
I think all depends on how fast and when West Asia crisis are over, which nobody can know today.
Okay, sir. Sir, do you have any flexibility in terms of increasing HPHT gas? Because new well gas is now much more expensive than even the HPHT. Any way you can increase HPHT in place of new well?
HPHT gas has been coming through IGX in small quantities, and there are some old contracts which are expiring. Whenever they come up for rebidding, since CGD has a priority now, we will be hopeful that we will get some HPHT in, you know, coming months. Definitely, there will be some availability of HPHT in this quarter or Q2.
Okay, sir. Yeah, lastly, how is the pricing of pooled gas derived?
Pricing of?
Pool.
The pooled gas.
We are not privy to that, we don't know.
Okay. But the pooled gas is basically the imported gas, right? Probably the weighted average of all the volumes that come to GAIL.
I think it is anybody's guess. I will not be able to. It could be some local also, I don't know.
GAIL would be your best-
Okay.
You should ask in the GAIL conference.
Sure. Okay, sir. Lastly, incremental volume, how much upside do you have a number on how much volume upside we can see on DPNG conversion because of LPG supply not being there, and also, easier access to lay down pipeline? Maybe not for the near term, maybe for a longer term, what is the incremental volume upside from there?
Look, historically DPNG has not grown very fast, about 6% or so. Definitely this can go to double digits. Again, one thing we need to keep in mind that, our penetration in, you know, the city of Mumbai, for example, in whichever buildings we are in at, is pretty high, almost 90%. Residential potential is relatively less. In our expansion areas, if we go towards, you know, the municipalities which are in the suburbs and further away, their per capita consumption comes out to be lower. Today, if we have, you know, 2 million burning DPNG customers, we are trying to add at least, you know, 4 or 5 lakh additional to that in the shortest possible span of time.
The incremental additions will not give you the same per capita consumption because this is going out in the extended suburbs.
Definitely the volume contribution we will expect to be more than 10%.
I think apart from even extended suburbs in the existing area where, you know, it was gasified, say 90%, and 10% people who stay six months in India and six months outside or somewhere else, outside Mumbai, since they will be mandated to switch to PNG because of the government notification, their average consumption also will be low. I think the additional connections will not ensure the same per capita consumption.
Yes, even if we do a 20% increase on the, you know, customer base of DPNG burning customers, actively burning customers, that may translate into a maybe 12% or so.
Yeah.
kind of increase in volumes in DPNG.
Sure, sir. Thank you. Thanks for the answer. Thank you. Bye.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Indra Kumar Gupta from PL Capital. Please go ahead.
Thank you for the opportunity. I think the first question was answered. I just have a second question, which is more of housekeeping. Can you please break down the CNG vehicles added in terms of, you know, buses, cars, autos for FY 2026?
Yes, sure.
Year on year, we have added, taxis 26,000, private cars 48,238, three-wheelers 33,200, private buses 223, minibuses 188. We have MSRTC buses 48, trucks 318, tempos 105, small commercial vehicles 7,400, and two-wheelers 2,465. In total, around 1.18 lakhs of CNG vehicles have been added in this financial year, last financial year.
Okay. Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Nitin Tiwari from Phillip Capital. Please go ahead.
Hi. Thank you for the opportunity. Good evening, sir. Sir, my question first one is a clarificatory one. If you could, just for the sake of clarity, reiterate what was our gas supply breakdown for the fourth quarter and also for the month of March. I suppose you gave it out for the month of March. If we can put the contracted quantity in perspective as well. That would be the first one.
You want March again, you are saying, or?
No, if you can first, I mean, give out the contracted quantity that we have against that, how much did we get in the fourth quarter and in March? That is what I am trying to understand.
Contracted quantity, how much we got in the, in March? Just a minute. HH we got around, you know, in the Q4, 0.78.
Okay. Against the contract of 1.5 you said, right?
Correct, correct. Yeah. Yeah.
Okay.
You see, it was also done by us, in some months purposely because HH price was high. We tried taking.
Okay.
I'm saying this quantity will not matter because depending on the relative price in the next month or next quarter, we will keep on changing. Because you saw, you know, in January, February, when Henry Hub was as high as $7.5, we did-
We did not take.
Okay.
-contracted quantity, and we took spot.
Understood, sir.
Still, you are asking for a figure, I'm giving you.
Sure, sure.
So-
In the month of March, how much was this quantity? The term HH quantity.
In the month of March, I said something that, you know. Sorry. You're saying HH in the month of March?
Yes.
HH I'll tell you for the second fortnight was little more than 500,000 .
Okay.
First fortnight it was almost.
We can have similar.
First fortnight it was almost 0.75 or 0.78.
0.65 or 0.7.
Okay. Second fortnight was 0.5, first fortnight was 0.7, right?
Yeah, yeah. You can do a weighted average.
Sure, sir. If we can have the same figures for your HPHT contracted quantity as well as other terminal LNG contracts.
I don't have-
And finally-
The HPHT. Whatever we get, you know, contracted or through IGX, I have the co-combined number. As I said earlier.
Yeah.
In the month of March, we have taken almost 0.9 HPHT.
Okay.
Yeah.
In the fourth quarter?
Fourth quarter combined HPHT 0.7 average.
Okay. Same figures for, sir, APM and NWG for the fourth quarter and for the month of March again.
No, no. APM for the full quarter on an average was more than INR 1.73.
Okay.
For March, first fortnight could be in the range of 1.7, but second fortnight was somewhere around 1.56 or something.
Okay. NWG, sir?
NWG, both you can take little more than 0.4, quarter.
For the-
Yeah, yeah.
For the quarter.
Both. March also. Little more than 0.4.
And the-
There was not much difference with RLNG because balance came through pooled gas.
Sorry, sir. You had initially mentioned that NWG and pooled was around 0.73 to 0.75 for the month of March, right?
I said NWG plus pooled, I had said. Okay?
Okay. Okay.
NWG was 0.4.
Little more than 0.4. Yes.
Okay. remaining was pooled, right?
Yeah, yeah. As I said earlier also, these quantities keep on changing. There is no guarantee.
No, I understand, sir. I mean, what I'm trying to understand is that in the fourth quarter, basically pooled pricing came in only in March, right?
That's all.
Yeah. I mean, when we are looking at the quantity for the entire quarter, the effect of pooled would be only in the month of March. What was the NWG quantity for the entire quarter? It was still 0.4 only.
pooled was there for some part of first fortnight also. Not only the second fortnight. March, yes, you are saying. Roughly two third of the March was having pooled gas.
All right, sir.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Tanay Kotecha from Nuvama. Please go ahead.
Hi. Hi, sir. Thanks for the opportunity. There's a 1% year-on-year fall in your PNG domestic volumes. Is there any specific reason for the same?
There's no fall in domestic PNG volume. Are you talking about per capita consumption or you're talking about absolute volume fall?
Absolute volume, sir. Q4 to Q4.
Domestic volume year on year.
Yes.
has grown by 7% or something. 6.6%. There is an increase in domestic volume. There is no fall in the domestic volume.
Okay.
6.1
All right, no problem.
Year on year. In DPNG and 2.04 in I&C.
Yeah.
Okay. No problem. Thank you. The next question is from the line of Yash Mandhana from Equirus Securities . Please go ahead.
Hi, sir. Am I audible?
Yes, you are.
Thanks a lot for the opportunity. Most of my questions are answered. Just 1. If we look at a longer term vision, we were sort of talking about the LNG prices sort of going downwards in two, three years because of the increased capacity coming in in U.S. What do you think would be the price in the long term at which it would become attractive for most of the Indian people to sort of switch? Last time you were mentioning somewhere around $9-$10 would be the price at which price-sensitive customers would convert. What would be the price right now for you?
Sir, it totally depends on what the alternate energy sources or alternate fuel prices are. You know, 10, 15 years back, I mean, $5 looked very high. Today $15 is normal.
Okay. Basically it will be a function of, say, petrol, diesel versus LNG, right?
LPG and industrial fuels.
Okay. LPG and industrial fuels as well. Okay. Understood, sir. Yeah. Thanks a lot, sir. Thanks a lot for that piece.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Shreyas Dewan, an individual investor. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Thanks for taking my question. I just wanted to understand that when the Brent goes from, let's say, $60-$95 , right? There is of course an input cost pressure that we get because of our sourcing mix, and there is an output price benefit that we get from our I&C because it's linked to the Brent crude. As a net impact, generally, is this beneficial for our company? Like when it goes from $60-$95 , or it hurts us? That's what I wanted to understand.
See, as you rightly said, the realization will go up. Okay? When you say hurts is because if my input gas cost is linked to Brent more proportion, then it may remain similar. We have a mix, and mix is skewed towards HH, which has remained low while Brent is higher. Under this scenario, it should benefit us in terms of net margin.
Especially in the I&C segment, the, on absolute terms, increase in gas cost is lower than.
Realization.
realization, so that way higher oil prices help us in I&C.
Correct. In I&C they do help us, but in the other segments where we still, there's an input cost that gets, you know, impacted because of our, like, the sources which are linked to the Brent, that is also going to have a negative impact at an overall level. At an overall level, I just wanted to understand.
No, no. I see, as far as domestic PNG is concerned, it is fully through APM, which has a ceiling.
Correct.
Even CNG, one-third of the quantity is through APM, which has a ceiling. If I have 0.9 roughly HPHT, which is also ceiling driven, it doesn't impact directly.
Directionally, if you look, if there is a sustained high level of Brent, then, you know, after some time.
Petrol, diesel.
petrol, diesel prices do go up. I mean.
Yes, the government will stabilize for some time, but that cannot happen indefinitely.
Right.
If Brent is up and petrol, diesel prices are kept artificially at a lower level, then I will certainly get impacted.
That is a temporary impact.
Otherwise it is not there. Brent going up generally will help.
Generally, this is good for margins.
Okay.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Amit Murarka, from Axis Capital. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Hi. Thanks for the opportunity. I just wanted to understand, like, the CNG vehicle addition seem to have slowed down a bit as we can see from the Vahan data. What are the reasons for this slowdown?
Which period you are referring to, Nitin? I mean, sorry, Amit.
Like generally I was looking in the last six months.
If you see, last 2 quarters, we have added almost 67,000 vehicles, okay? Which is quite a high number compared to earlier 2 quarters, which was, roughly 50,000. In fact, there is an increase.
Increase.
There is an increase.
There's no decrease.
Oh, okay. Maybe I'll just reconnect with you. I thought I saw the data. Maybe I'll check it again and reconnect with you.
These data are available on our presentation as well. You can see them.
Sure, sure.
Yeah.
Yeah, sure. On, on the margin, if I can just reconfirm, you mentioned that the near term margin is a bit lower than what it was in Q4, right? What you are seeing right now in April and March. In April and May, you said that the cost price increase is not fully covered for the cost increases. That understanding is correct, right?
Yeah, yeah. Specifically in case of CNG, complete pass-through could not be done. Yeah. Hello.
Thank you. Due to time constraints , we'll take this as the last question. I now hand the conference over to Mr. Gagan sir. Thank you, and over to you.
Yeah. Before we end the call, I would like to mention that some of the statements made in today's discussion may be forward-looking in nature, and we believe that expectations contained in such statements are reasonable. However, these statements involve a number of risks and uncertainties that could lead to different results. We urge you to consider that quarterly numbers are not a reflection of long-term trends or indication of full year results. With that said, I will now hand over the call to the management for closing remarks. Over to you, sir.
Thank you everybody for joining us on this call.
Yeah. Thank you.
Thank you so much.
Thank you.
Thank you. Thanks so much.
Thank you. On behalf of Elara Securities, that concludes this conference. Thank you for joining us. You may now disconnect your lines.