India on track to reduce oil import dependence 10% by 2022: Pradhan

New Delhi: The government is on track to meet the target of cutting India's oil import dependence by 10 per cent by 2020, Petroleum Minnister Dharmendra Pradhan said on Wednesday.

Speaking at the 'Urja Sangam' conference in March 2015, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had said that India needs to bring down its oil import dependence from 77 per cent in 2013-14, to 67 per cent by 2022, when India will celebrate its 75th year of independence. Further, the dependence can be cut to half by 2030, he had said.

But with consumption growing at a brisk pace and domestic output remaining stagnant, India's oil import dependence has risen from 82.9 per cent in 2017-18, to 83.7 per cent in 2018-19, according to the oil ministry's Petroleum Planning and Analysis Cell (PPAC).

"We are very much on track. We will achieve the target," Pradhan told reporters on sidelines of an industry event here.

The government is focusing on increased use of bio-fuels and raising domestic crude oil and gas production to reduce imports.

Pradhan said blending of ethanol in petrol has risen to 6 per cent at present and the blending would rise further to 10 per cent by 2022.

Simultaneously, 5,000 compressed bio-gas plants are being set up that will convert agriculture and municipal waste into fuel, he said. Use of alternate fuels will help bring down import dependence, he said.

Also, exploration rules have been changed multiple times during the last five years to get the elusive private and foreign investment.

Import dependence in 2015-16, was 80.6 per cent, which rose to 81.7 per cent in the following year, according to PPAC.

The country's oil consumption grew from 184.7 million tonnes in 2015-16 to 194.6 million tonnes in the following year and 206.2 million tonnes in the year thereafter. In 2018-19, demand grew by 2.6 per cent to 211.6 million tonnes.

In contrast, domestic output witnessed a decline. India's crude oil output fell from 36.9 million tonnes in 2015-16 to 36 million tonnes in 2016-17.

The trend of negative growth continued in the following years as output fell to 35.7 million tonnes in 2017-18 and to 34.2 million tonnes in the fiscal year that ended on March 31, 2019, PPAC data showed.

According to PPAC, India spent $111.9 billion on oil imports in 2018-19, up from $87.8 billion in the previous fiscal year. The import bill was $64 billion in 2015-16.

For the current fiscal, it projected crude oil imports to rise to 233 million tonnes and foreign exchange spending on it to marginally increase to $112.7 billion.

State-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corp's (ONGC) output fell to 19.6 million tonnes in 2018-19 from 20.8 million tonnes in the previous year. ONGC's oil production was 20.9 million tonnes in 2016-17 and 21.1 million tonnes in 2015-16. Output from fields operated by private firms has dropped from 11.2 million tonnes in 2015-16 to 9.6 million tonnes in 2018-19.

India will see a massive $100 billion investment in creating oil and gas infrastructure over the next five years as the world's third-largest energy consumer steps up spending to meet rising demand. Speaking at KPMG's Enrich 2019 conference, he said India will chart its own course of energy transition in a responsible manner even as it is said to be a key driver of global energy demand in the coming decades.

"India will see an investment of $100 billion by 2024 in oil refining, pipelines, city gas distribution networks, and LNG terminals," he said.

Of this, $60 billion will flow into the creation of gas infrastructures such as pipelines, city gas networks, and import terminals, he said.

He said the country wants more foreign investment inflow into upstream oil and gas exploration and production as well as downstream fuel marketing and petrochemicals.

India will secure capital, world-class technology and implement any policy reforms needed to become an international energy leader, he said. "India wants to be the new destination for global energy players."

Several reforms including opening up of fuel retailing to non-oil companies and overhaul of exploration licensing policy are aimed at attracting investments, he said.

India is the third-largest energy consumer in the world in absolute terms after the US and China. However, per capita energy consumption in India is only about one-third of the world's average.

"This makes it imperative to ensure energy justice to all, which essentially means access to energy in an affordable and sustainable manner," he said.

Given its huge energy appetite and growth potential, India will be the key driver of global energy demand in the coming decades, he said.

No single source can meet the energy demand, he said. "India will chart its own course of the energy transition in a responsible manner and would greatly influence global energy transition," he said.

"In India, we are finding ways to achieve the twin objectives of more energy and less carbon through a healthy mix of all commercially-viable energy sources. India will chart its own course of the energy transition in a responsible manner."

Speaking about sustainable growth, Pradhan said the centrality of energy growth in a sustainable manner is a high priority of the government.

There is unprecedented advancement, on both the demand and supply sides of the equation, as the world and India seek out more benign methods to advance global growth and welfare.

He said the trajectory to end energy poverty in India, as compared to the rest of the world, would be based on special national circumstances. This is more so when the average Indian lives only on a third of the per capita consumption of energy that the United Nations believes is necessary for human well-being.