India’s petroleum minister Shri Dharmendra Pradhan has called for a “resurgence” in the exploration and production sector in India.
Speaking at an industry conference on Friday he said India is the fastest growing major economy in the world today.
He said: “IMF has assessed India’s GDP growth rate at 7.3% this year & 7.6% in 2016. Similarly, India’s energy consumption in 2014 witnessed an increase of 7.1% over that of 2013, which is the highest in the world.”
Quoting India Energy Report, recently brought out by the International Energy Agency, Shri Pradhan said that by 2040, India’s energy demand will be close to that of the United States, even though demand per capita will still remain 40% below the world average. The IEA report also projects that India’s oil import dependence will increase above 90% by 2040.
Keeping in view these statistics, the minister asked to revisit India’s upstream hydrocarbon statistics: “For the past 3 years, our domestic crude production has remained static at around 37-38 Million Metric Tons. If we look at domestic natural gas output, we find that the production has actually declined from 111 MMSCMD in 2012-13 to 92 MMSCMD in 2014-15 ”, he said.
Shri Pradhan said in this context, therefore, the upstream E&P sector is a key component of national energy security.