IOC Chairman seeks budgetary support for refiners for using green hydrogen

With oil refineries expected to be the largest consumers of green hydrogen, Indian Oil Chairman Shrikant Madhav Vaidya on Monday said that a budgetary support for the refining sector will help achieve the net zero target.

Speaking at the post budget interaction of the Maharashtra industry with the Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman here, Vaidya said, that the Green Hydrogen policy talks about waving off the levies and duties of the interstate transmission charges so that the cost of consumption of power at the generation point is nearly the same.

 “(But) green hydrogen is a very capital intensive business. Since oil refiners are going to be the biggest consumers of hydrogen in the days to come, and we will be making the green hydrogen foray a big success, if some budgetary support is given for consumption of green hydrogen especially to the refining sector because that’s where the first time the green hydrogen consumption will begin, that will be a big step towards net zero targets,” he added.

On February 17, the government unveiled the first phase of the much-hyped Green Hydrogen Policy, which offers a range of incentives to investors on development and deployment of green ammonia and green hydrogen.

Under this, the government is targeting production of 5 million tonnes of green hydrogen by 2030.

He further said that India is currently in a very unique situation as far as energy is concerned and that the demand for conventional fuel is also growing.

Vaidya said that today, demand for gasoline is 10-15 per cent more than during pre-Covid level, LPG is also 15 per cent more in demand and demand for diesel is 5-7 per cent less.

“So as a company we are investing in traditional fuels also because the need is there,” he said, adding that a budgetary support will be a big step to meet net zero target.

Source:https://www.dailyexcelsior.com/