India major driver of fuel demand: Puri

Inviting global firms to invest in the opportunities in the country’s oil and gas sector, Union minister of petroleum and natural gas Hardeep Singh Puri said on Wednesday that the “real growth story as a critical driver of (fuel) demand will come from India”. Puri was speaking at the inauguration of the oil and gas sectoral floor in the India Pavilion at the Expo 2020 held in Dubai.

Pointing out the government’s strategies for accelerating investments in the Indian oil and gas value chain, Puri said that steps have been taken to increase the areas under oil and gas exploration. The aim to increase the share of natural gas in the country’s energy mix from the current level of 6% to 15% by 2030 will itself require around $60 billion of investments, the minister added.

The country’s state-run national oil companies have been looking for international players to ramp up domestic oil and gas production to reduce the dependency on imports. Prime Minister Narendra Modi recently interacted with the heads of major global oil companies, including Rosneft’s Igor Sechin, Saudi Aramco’s Amin Nasser, BP’s Bernard Looney, RIL chairman Mukesh Ambani, and Vedanta chairman Anil Agarwal. Import dependency of natural gas stood at 49% in April-September, while around 85% of the country’s crude oil requirement has to be imported.

Source: Financial Express