India’s Energy Demand Will Continue To Provide Fuel For Future Economic Growth : Petroleum Minister Hardeep Singh Puri

Talking about the fast progress made by India in green and clean energy sector, Shri Hardeep Singh Puri, the Minister of Petroleum & Natural Gas and Housing & Urban Affairs, said that the 10 percent target on biofuel blending by November, 2022 was attained 5 months in advance, and the 20 percent biofuel blending target of 2030 has been advanced to 2025.

The Petroleum & Natural Gas Minister Shri Puri was addressing the gathering at inauguration of 26th Energy Technology Meet.

Speaking on management of 3 challenges in the energy sector i.e. availability, affordability and sustainability, he said, for a start we did not allow our challenge on sustainbaility to deccelerate infact we accelerate.

Also slowly and surely, the Minister said that we are shedding this limit of 20 percent as this limit was imposed by us on ourselves because the automobile companies told that up to 20 percent blending not much change is required in engines. But now, he said, we have 20 percent blended fuel, and the process of setting up of ethanol and biogas plants etc. is underway rigourously. The automobile manufacturers are also moving forward in terms of technological advancements. Giving example of the recently launched Green Hydrogen Bus by India Oil, he said that now we are going into new technological mindset, we have elecric cars and other flexi-fuel vehicles.

Speaking about rising energy demand of the country, the Minister said that India’s energy demand will continue to provide fuel for future economic growth and is bound to grow exponentially in the coming years. He said that at present the country is world’s 3rd largest consumer of oil, 3rd largest LPG consumer, 4th largest LNG importer, 4th largest refiner, 4th largest automobile market.

India is likely to account for 25% of global energy demand growth over the next two decades, he emphasised.

With launch of Biofuels Alliance, Shri Puri, said that the global biofuel market will go up from 92 bn dollars at present to 200 bn dollars very shortly. However, this is not the end of the story. The real story on biofuels has just started. The 10 percent ethnaol blending has led to considerable savings on the import bill and it will increase with 20 percent blending, he stated.

The Minister said that the surest means of determining a country’s growth is to look at its energy consumption. And India’s energy consumption is 3 times of the global average. Going forward, he suggested, we should have more gatherings like this, encourage more countries to come and take advantage of all the discussions.

Centre for High Technology (CHT), under the aegis of the Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas, Govt. of India is organising the 26th Energy Technology Meet (ETM), during 9-11 October 2023 at International Exhibition Cum Convention Centre (Bharat Mandapam), Pragati Maidan, New Delhi with Engineers India Limited (EIL) and Numaligarh Refinery Limited (NRL) as co-hosts.

The event was inaugurated by Petroleum & Natural Gas Minister Shri Hardeep Singh Puri in the august presence of Shri Rameswar Teli, Minister of State of Petroleum and Natural Gas & Labour and Employment, Shri Pankaj Jain, Secretary, PNG and Dr Anil Kakodkar, Eminent Scientist and Chairman of Scientific Advisory Committee on Hydrocarbons of MoP&NG, CMDs, Directors and Senior Executives of Oil Companies.

During the inaugural session, Refinery Performance Improvement & Saksham Awards FY 2022-23 and Innovation Awards were presented to the winners by Petroleum & Natural Gas Minister Shri Hardeep Singh Puri. The list of the awards is shared below:

The global energy landscape is witnessing a paradigm shift due to rise in electrification, changes in the mobility sector and the increasing share of renewables in the energy mix. The challenge for Indian Refining sector is to grow to meet rising need for energy in the country as well as to integrate more and more with Petrochemicals, Biorefining and Green Hydrogen. The theme of the event is “Emerging Energy Trends & Future of Refining”.

The revered annual convention cum exhibition provides a common forum for refiners and technology service providers for the exposition of recent advances and technological developments in the energy sector and in particular the refining and petrochemicals sectors. 27 technology service providers from across the globe have put up stalls for showcasing the recent technological advances in the energy sector. The meet is attended by more than 1300 delegates from India and abroad.

EIL is South Asia’s leading engineering consultancy and EPC company providing a wide gamut of services in sectors like hydrocarbons, infrastructure, biofuels, mining & metallurgy, water & waste management, solar & nuclear power and fertilizers.

NRL is a Schedule-A Category -I Miniratna CPSU under MoP&NG that has embarked on a major integrated Refinery Expansion Project to treble its capacity from 3 MMTPA to 9 MMTPA.