NEW DELHI: India on Friday said it plans to reduce crude oil import by 10% by 2022 to ensure energy security with Oil and Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan highlighting the government’s bid to achieve self-sufficiency by enhancing indigenous production of petroleum products. “(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% by 2022. Crude oil import currently accounts for 70-75% 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,” Pradhan said. “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,” he added.
