Govt aiming to reduce crude oil import by 10% by 2022: Pradhan

"(This is) A key step of the larger plan to ensure ‘Energy Security’ for the country,” he said while addressing Asian oil and gas industry executives at the launch a road show for discovered small fields with reserves of 650 million barrels of oil and gas which are being offered for exploration.

He highlighted “the government goal of reducing crude oil imports by 10 per cent by 2022. Crude oil import currently accounts for 70-75 per cent of India’s total crude oil consumption”. “Aligned with its cherished goal of enhancing indigenous production of crude oil, the government has come up with a new policy - Hydrocarbon Exploration and Licensing Policy (HELP),” Pradhan said.

HELP is a market-driven policy framework which focuses on providing operational flexibility to the market players, and strives to make the systems more efficient as well as effective. India wants to bring in more entrepreneurial ventures into the Exploration and Production sector, as well as international investors to industrialise the energy producers. “In line with government’s policy on ‘Maximum Government, Minimum Governance’, we want to bring in more entrepreneurial ventures into the E&P sector. We recognise that the need of the hour is to increase the domestic energy production by unlocking India’s hydrocarbon potential.

“We strongly believe that sustainable increase in the domestic production of oil and gas will not only counter the energy constraints that we face, but also make us self- sufficient in meeting our energy needs,” Pradhan added. Moreover, Oil and Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan while seeking to provide affordable energy to the Indian consumers said that, the government has introduced transparent policies through the deregulated market for global players to invest in refineries and petrochemical plants. Launching a road show which offers 67 discovered small fields, clustered into 46 contract areas, for production and supply of oil and gas to the Indian market, he said India is seeking global investors for its energy sector to create competition in the domestic market with the main objective of providing competitively priced products to the consumers.

“Consumers are the kings in India. We want to provide affordable energy to our consumers,” Pradhan said, stressing that participation by big energy players like Saudi Aramco, Shell, British Petroleum, Rosneft among others is important for developing and industrialising the energy sector in India. He was confident of attracting global investors, saying international energy companies were eyeing the Indian market, which has the fastest energy demand growth in the world. “Rosneft (for one) is eyeing Indian market,” Pradhan said, pointing to the Russian energy group’s ongoing negotiations with India’s Essar Group for participating in the refining sector.

“When we are talking about free and transparent policies, we have to open our market. Consciously, we have deregulated our market and we are giving gradually price and marketing freedom to the investors,” he told reporters after launching a Road Show on India’s discovered small fields. India has introduced transparent policies through the deregulated market for international investors to invest in refineries and petrochemical plants. This would help provide affordable energy to the Indian consumers, Pradhan said. He has brought a delegation of senior ministry officials and chief executives of corporations in India to see how Singapore had developed the Jurong Petrochemical complex among other energy facilities. A delegation comprising senior oil ministry officials and chief executives of corporations is here to see how Singapore has developed the Jurong Petrochemical complex. Its objectives are to develop deeper relationships with companies here.