By: Pravin Prashant
Last updated : December 24, 2020 8:58 am
India’s energy demand would grow at about 3% per annum till 2040.
Describing India as an attractive investment destination for the energy sector as several policy reforms have enhanced the ease-of-doing-business says Union Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas & Steel Dharmendra Pradhan while interacting with the Stanford Alumni Group.
“A testament to the same is the projected investment of around US $143 billion in the Indian oil & gas sector of which around US $56 is in E&P, US $66 billion in gas and around US $20 billion in refining. We are keen to partner with global companies and investors for further strengthening of energy infrastructure in the country."
Dharmendra Pradhan said, "India is currently using only 6% of the world’s primary energy while the per capita consumption of energy is still one-third of the global average. This, however, is rapidly changing. Recently released reports of many international platforms and agencies have estimated that the world’s total primary energy demand would increase at less than 1% per annum till 2040. On the other hand, India’s energy demand would grow at about 3% per annum till 2040."
"Oil demand would plateau around 2030 for the world while the same would happen for India in 2035. Natural gas would increase its share in the world energy mix replacing oil and coal. This energy growth would be mainly supported by India and other countries in Asia," added Pradhan.
The Minister envisaged the measures for a cleaner, greener and more inclusive future for India.
He said, "We are moving rapidly towards cleaner use of fossil fuels, particularly petroleum and coal. A greater reliance is on domestic sources to drive biofuels. We are working towards achieving the renewables target of 450 GW by 2030, increasing the contribution of electricity to decarbonize mobility. Moving into the emerging fuels, including hydrogen and emphasising on digital innovation across energy systems.”
We are on track to achieve our goal of 175 GW of renewable energy capacity by 2022 and have scaled our target to 450 GW of renewable energy capacity by 2030. Bio fuels is another area where we are vigorously working to tap its substantial potential to give us energy security, sustainability and also help the farming community. He mentioned the success in reduction of GreenHouse Gas emissions by 43 million tonnes annually by LED bulb distribution and LED Street Lighting National Programme.
Speaking about energy security strategy, the minister said that we have achieved the milestone of completely filling all the strategic petroleum reserves this year with a total capacity of 5.33 MMT constructed at Visakhapatnam, Mangalore and Padur.
“We have initiated the process of establishing another 6.5 MMT commercial-cum-strategic petroleum storage facilities at two locations at Chandikol and Padur under the Public Private Partnership model,” added Pradhan.