Mr. Dharmendra Pradhan, Minister of State for Petroleum and Natural Gas, has expressed confidence that India will achieve the set target of 10 per cent reduction in oil and gas import by 2022.
Inaugurating Indian Oil Corporation’s second Gas Conclave in New Delhi in the presence of Mr. K.D. Tripathi, Secretary, Petroleum & Natural Gas, Mr. B. Ashok, Chairman, IndianOil, Mr. D. Sen, Director (Planning & Business Development), IndianOil, and several other industry luminaries, Mr. Pradhan said that natural gas will play a major role in achieving this target, and the Government has already taken a number of policy initiatives that would unlock a large quantity of hydrocarbons.
He said that India’s energy consumption is increasing and that without energy security there can be no development. Gas is the fuel of the future, and India is taking steps to boost exploration & production in this area. The Government is working with public sector oil companies to bring in a start-up fund for the oil & gas industry, which would further boost innovative ideas in the sector.
The Government is committed to reducing the carbon footprint by 30-35 per cent by 2030. To achieve this, it is promoting the use of clean fuels like natural gas. The gas sector has to be developed through participation by all stakeholders. The Government is also committed to balanced growth and new pipelines are being laid for this purpose in eastern India, which will boost the availability of gas in the under-developed parts of the country, he added.
Speaking on the occasion, Mr. Tripathi said that India’s economy is growing and there are ample opportunities to be seized. He called upon all the stakeholders to contribute and ensure sustainable gas at affordable rates.
In his address, Mr. Ashok observed that natural gas is finding more acceptance in the Indian market and is expected to rise multifold in the coming years. IndianOil entered into a gas marketing arrangement in 2004, and, as one of the co-promoters of Petronet LNG Ltd. (PLL), which set up an LNG terminal at Dahej that year, took up the challenge of marketing 30 per cent of the product available from a long-term agreement signed between PLL and RasGas. The Corporation has also booked an additional 1.5 million tonnes per annum capacity in the terminal.
Mr. Ashok also said that in a little more than 10 years IndianOil’s gas business has grown from 0.67 million tonnes to 3.5 million tonnes per annum of Regassified LNG (R-LNG). The Corporation has now embarked upon setting up its first state-of-the-art onshore LNG import terminal of 5 MMTPA capacity at Ennore, near Chennai, with a provision to scale it up to 10 MMTPA, he added.
Welcoming the gathering, Mr. Sen said the Corporation has always stood for change in gas business and has opposed all moves to stall the development of the sector by way of litigation or unreasonable demands. It stands for customer rights and offers ethical and suitable terms to customers, he added.
Eminent speakers, including Mr. S. Krishnan, former Chairman of the Petroleum & Natural Gas Regulatory Board, Dr. B. Mohanty, Member, PNGRB, Mr. R.S. Butola and Mr. S. Behuria, former Chairmen, IndianOil, Mr. Subir Purkayastha, Director (Finance), GAIL, Mr. Nicholas Browne, Senior Research Manager, Wood Mackenzie, Mr. Richard Baylis, Director (LNG), Uniper Global, Dr. Mike Peters, Regional Manager (Asia-Pacific), Shell, Mr. Vikas Kaushal, MD & Country Head, AT Kearney, Mr. Akhil Mehrotra, Director – Downstream Business, BG India, and Mr. Uday Kiran, VP (LNG Business Development), Engie, also addressed the Conclave which had participation from 10 countries.