Heralding the institution of a market-based mechanism for price discovery and the availability of natural gas in the country, the National Stock Exchange of India (NSE) has received approval from the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) to launch Indian Natural Gas futures, it confirmed in a statement on Monday (February 16, 2026).

The Mumbai-headquartered exchange further stated the NSE Indian Natural Gas futures would be monthly contracts. Additionally, at any point in time, there would be 12 monthly contracts available for trading.

The exchange also informed that further details on contract designs and launch timelines would be “announced in due course”.

On January 8, NSE had first announced the strategic collaboration with the Indian Gas Exchange (IGX) to develop and set up Indian Natural Gas futures. It would seek to combine NSE’s market infrastructures in the derivatives space and IGX’s mechanism for spot trading of natural gas.

“The proposed futures contract will provide market participants with a transparent, efficient and robust risk management tool aligned to India’s evolving natural gas pricing framework,” its latest statement held.

The introduction of the natural gas futures is expected to benefit gas producers, city gas distributors, power generators, fertiliser manufacturers, industrial consumers, traders and financial participants by “enabling effective hedging against price volatility and improving long-term planning”, it held.