India taking global leadership role in biofuels supply chain

India’s GDP growth was 7.7% in the first six months of the current fiscal year, said Hardeep Singh Puri, Minister for Petroleum & Natural Gas and Housing & Urban Affairs. Elaborating on the growth-energy correlation in Indian context, he said that the growth-energy correlation is evident in India as it is now the world’s 3rd largest energy consumer, 3rd largest consumer of oil, 3rd Largest LPG consumer, 4th largest LNG importer, 4th largest refiner and 4th largest automobile market in the world.

While interacting with media, Puri talked about the steps taken by Government to augment India’s Exploration & Production (E&P) sector. He said that the “No Go” areas in EEZ have been reduced by almost 99% and 10 Lakh SKM area is now free in EEZ for E&P Activity. As on date, total operational area (active) under Nomination, Pre-NELP, NELP, CBM, DSF and OALP/ HELP is 3.27lakh Sq Km, he said.

Puri stressed that Ethanol blending during ESY 2022-23 has saved approx. 509 crore litres of Petrol resulting in savings of more than Rs. 24,300 crore of foreign exchange and expeditious payment of about Rs.19,300 crore to farmers including net CO2 reduction of 108 lakh metric tonnes.

The number of retail outlets retailing E20 is now more than 9300 and will cover the entire country by 2025, said the Petroleum Minister.

The Minister also talked about CBG blending Obligation (CBO) which will be voluntary till FY 2024-2025 and mandatory blending obligation would start from FY 2025-26.

He said that India has taken global leadership role in Biofuels supply chain with the successful launch of Global Biofuels Alliance (GBA) in September 2023. “India has been successful to promote GBA as a pivotal path in the sustainability journey at COP 28 held in December 2023. GBA is also an important part of India’s agenda in WEF that is scheduled in Jan’2024”, He said.

Minister said that the Government has taken a lot of steps to increase share of Natural gas from present 6.3% to 15% in primary energy mix with an approx. investment of $67 Billion in Natural Gas infrastructure by next 5-6 years. This will translate into increase in the gas consumption by over three-fold, from the present level of around 155 MMSCMD to over 500 MMSCMD by the year 2030.

Referring to the progress of City Gas Distribution (CGD) network since May 2014, Shri Puri highlighted the increase in no. of CGD networks for Gas from 53 in 2014 to 300 in 2023; increase in PNG Connections from 25.4 lakh in 2014 to 1.19 crore in 2023; and increase in no. of CNG Stations from 738 in 2014 to 6088 in 2023. He noted that the CGD Coverage (Population wise%) has increased from 13.27 % in 2014 to 98% in 2023. CGD Coverage (Area wise %) has also witnessed increase from 5.58 % in 2014 to 88 % in 2023. The recent launch of the 12th CGD Bidding Round will cover the balance portion of the coverage area and population.