New Delhi: India will have "massive, additional" areas for oil exploration and production by 2025, Union Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas Hardeep Singh Puri said after inaugurating the Indian pavilion at the Abu Dhabi International Petroleum Exhibition and Conference (ADIPEC) 2021 in Abu Dhabi on Monday. "As far as the government of India is concerned, we are going to step on the accelerator in terms of exploration and production in a very big way," Puri told global oil and gas industry leaders at the event.
The minister said that India is planning to double the area under acreage in the Northeastern part of the country. "In the North-East, we will increase the area under E&P (exploration and production) from 30,000 square kilometres to 60,000 square kilometres," said Puri. Elaborating on India's plans to increase the share of natural gas in its economy, the minister said that India aims to expand its gas pipeline network to 34,000 km. "This means $60 billion investment in gas pipeline infrastructure alone, increasing the refining capacity from 250 million metric tonnes to 400 million metric tonnes per annum by 2030 and gas mix from 6 percent to 15 percent," said Puri.
The minister told the gathering that at the COP26, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has committed to net-zero emissions by 2070.
Hosted by Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC), ADIPEC 2021 is being attended by at least 30 oil and gas ministers from around the world. The event is taking place close on the heels of the COP26 summit in Glasgow, which concluded on November 12.
(PSU Watch– India's Business News centre that places the spotlight on PSUs, Bureaucracy, Defence and Public Policy is now on Google News. Click here to follow. Also, join PSU Watch Channel in your Telegram. You may also follow us on Twitter here and stay updated.)