Moily calls for greater reliance on natural gas
5 Jan 2013 1:59 AM GMT
Union minister of petroleum and natural gas M Veerapa Moily attended 'Oil & Gas in India' seminar oranised by The Associated Chambers of Commerce & Industry of India (Assocham).
The theme for the event was 'Facilitating Exploration and Production Activities'. Speaking on the occasion oil minister calls for complete energy independence by 2030. 'It is widely acknowledged that hydrocarbons will continue to be the predominant component in our energy basket well into the middle of this century. We have to keep this in mind while formulating our strategy.
Oil and gas sector constitute around 15 per cent India’s GDP, hence the sector is of prime importance to the national economy', Moily said. Expressing concern over the rising enery sector imports he said ' we see that petroleum imports as percentage of foreign reserves has been more than 30 per cent consistently over the last few years.
It is seen that for the year 2010-11, value wise petroleum import are found to be 34.8 per cent of the foreign reserves that India held up as against 23.18 per cent seen in 2002-03.' While coal remains the mainstay for power generation for India and fuels 70 per cent of the power generation, it is at present unable to meet the requirement from indigenous sources.
The deficit in supply for coal has resulted in widening of demand supply gap which was only 59.98 million tones in 2008-09 has increased to 98.93 million tonnes in 2011-12. Adding over energy mix of the country he said, our coal reliance is to the extent of 53 per cent while crude accounts for 31 per cent of our energy basket.
Natural Gas, Hydro power and nuclear power contribute 9 per cent, 6 per cent and 1 per cent respectively. If we look at the global energy basket, we find that coal accounts for just 26 per cent, crude for 31 per cent and Natural Gas for as much as 23 per cent.
Hydro power and nuclear power contribute 7 per cent and 5 per cent respectively. Some markers are available in these statistics. We need to reduce our reliance on coal and increase the role of Natural Gas as renewable sources of energy due to reasons of pure economics and R&D challenges will not be able to auuplant hydrocarbons. Briefing about Union government plans he informed that ‘according to the International Energy Agency, India will need investment worth nearly US $600 billion over the next 20 years across various segments of its hydrocarbon value chain to increase its energy supply and augment the enabling infrastructure. This provides ample investment and business opportunities for companies engaged in the oil & gas value chain.’
The theme for the event was 'Facilitating Exploration and Production Activities'. Speaking on the occasion oil minister calls for complete energy independence by 2030. 'It is widely acknowledged that hydrocarbons will continue to be the predominant component in our energy basket well into the middle of this century. We have to keep this in mind while formulating our strategy.
Oil and gas sector constitute around 15 per cent India’s GDP, hence the sector is of prime importance to the national economy', Moily said. Expressing concern over the rising enery sector imports he said ' we see that petroleum imports as percentage of foreign reserves has been more than 30 per cent consistently over the last few years.
It is seen that for the year 2010-11, value wise petroleum import are found to be 34.8 per cent of the foreign reserves that India held up as against 23.18 per cent seen in 2002-03.' While coal remains the mainstay for power generation for India and fuels 70 per cent of the power generation, it is at present unable to meet the requirement from indigenous sources.
The deficit in supply for coal has resulted in widening of demand supply gap which was only 59.98 million tones in 2008-09 has increased to 98.93 million tonnes in 2011-12. Adding over energy mix of the country he said, our coal reliance is to the extent of 53 per cent while crude accounts for 31 per cent of our energy basket.
Natural Gas, Hydro power and nuclear power contribute 9 per cent, 6 per cent and 1 per cent respectively. If we look at the global energy basket, we find that coal accounts for just 26 per cent, crude for 31 per cent and Natural Gas for as much as 23 per cent.
Hydro power and nuclear power contribute 7 per cent and 5 per cent respectively. Some markers are available in these statistics. We need to reduce our reliance on coal and increase the role of Natural Gas as renewable sources of energy due to reasons of pure economics and R&D challenges will not be able to auuplant hydrocarbons. Briefing about Union government plans he informed that ‘according to the International Energy Agency, India will need investment worth nearly US $600 billion over the next 20 years across various segments of its hydrocarbon value chain to increase its energy supply and augment the enabling infrastructure. This provides ample investment and business opportunities for companies engaged in the oil & gas value chain.’
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