Highlighting India’s clean energy goals and efforts towards attaining self-reliance in energy production, Union Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas, Hardeep Singh Puri, acknowledged that the country still relies heavily on oil imports even though its production is steadily increasing.
Throwing light on the expanding compressed biogas plants and LPG distribution network in the country, Puri said India’s refineries are producing more while being focused on greater exploration and production (E&P).
“Today, we are running against all statistics. We have 33.5 crore LPG connections in the country, including 10.5 crore under the Ujjwala Yojana scheme. Yet, we still import about 60 per cent of our LPG,” said the minister at an event in New Delhi on Friday.
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There are 113 CBG plants in operation, while another 73 are under construction, informed Puri, and added that the country’s liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) distribution is another example of progress in energy access.
"If you look at the car models coming onto the market, many new ones are CNG-compatible. So that's a success story," he said.
While noting that India’s natural gas production is witnessing healthy growth at 18 per cent per year, the minister agreed that its import was still high at 50 per cent.
Despite India’s heavy dependence on imports, Puri reaffirmed the country’s decisive strides towards achieving self-reliance or ‘atmanirbharta’.
"A country like India, which has these challenges, is moving in the direction of self-sufficiency, but it's going to take time," he said, and added, "Meanwhile, we will import, we will increase our production, and we've already diversified our import sources."
The third-largest consumer of energy in the world, India imports almost 80 per cent of its oil and 50 per cent of its natural gas, using almost 5.4 million barrels of oil per day.
However, it is now importing oil and gas from as many as 40 countries to diversify its import basket.
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