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India Gazette
5 days ago
- Business
- India Gazette
India's oil imports from Russia helped global markets to stabilise: Hardeep Puri silences critics
New Delhi [India], July 10 (ANI): Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Hardeep Puri said India's continued purchase of crude oil from Russia helped stabilise energy prices globally, and halting oil trade from Russia would have spiralled crude prices to over USD 120-130 per barrel. When asked about buying Russian oil during a press interaction, Minister Puri explained that Russia produces over 9 million barrels per day and is one of the world's largest crude oil producers. If, out of global oil supplies of around 97 million barrels, 9 million barrels had suddenly vanished, the entire world would have had to reduce consumption by over 10 per cent, which is impossible, he said. This chaos would have led to global oil prices spiralling to over USD 120-130 per barrel, as all consumers would have been competing for the reduced supplies. 'Imagine the chaos if this oil, amounting to about 10 per cent of the global oil supply of around 97 million, vanished from the market,' he said, during his visit to Vienna. According to him, 'It would have forced the world to reduce its consumption, and since the consumers would be chasing the reduced supplies, the prices would've spiralled to over USD 120-130.' After the war erupted between Russia and Ukraine, the US and Western nations imposed restrictions on Moscow. However, India has continued to purchase Russian oil. Russian oil was never subject to global sanctions; it was only placed under a price cap. 'Russian oil was never under global sanctions. Sensible decision makers around the world were aware of the realities of global oil supply chains and how India was only helping the global markets by buying discounted oil under a price cap from wherever we could,' he praised India's role in navigating the energy crisis. Silencing voices that have been questioning India's crude oil imports from Russia, Puri said that some commentators, who lack an understanding of the dynamics of energy markets, pass unnecessary judgments on our policies. 'India, under the leadership of PM Narendra Modi, has been a net positive contributor to global energy price stability, while at the same time we successfully navigated the trilemma of energy availability, affordability and sustainability,' he added. India continues to provide clean cooking gas to its 330 million households at the lowest prices in the world, the Minister affirmed, indicating its commitment to energy security for its people. 'We provide universal clean cooking to more than 103 million beneficiary families of the PM Ujjwala Scheme at just 0.4 dollars/kg or just 7-8 cents/day,' he added. Meanwhile, India is making significant efforts to increase its traditional fossil-based energy production, and the latest push is to explore the Andaman region. India is the world's third-largest energy consumer with a demand of about 5.4 million barrels of oil per day. India today imports 80 per cent of its oil and 50 per cent of its natural gas needs. India is now importing oil and gas from as many countries as possible to meet its demand. Separately, during his participation at the 9th OPEC International Seminar held in Vienna on Wednesday, Minister Puri had a series of important bilateral and business meetings aimed at deepening India's energy partnerships and supporting the country's growing energy needs. Puri met with Tareq Sulaiman Al-Roumi, Kuwait's Minister of Oil and Chairman of the Kuwait Petroleum Corporation, where they discussed ways to strengthen the existing association further. Kuwait currently ranks as the 6th largest source of crude oil, the 4th most significant source of LPG, and stands as India's 8th largest hydrocarbon trade partner. In a separate meeting, Puri met Sen. Heineken Lokpobiri, Nigerian Minister of State for Petroleum Resources. This interaction followed their previous engagement at the 2024 Davos meeting. Indian companies have been consistent buyers of Nigerian crude, and the discussions focused on exploring avenues further to expand the hydrocarbons trade between the two nations and reinforce their longstanding partnership. Additionally, Puri held a brief meeting with Wael Sawan, CEO of Shell, to discuss potential collaborations in light of India's ambitious exploration and production (E&P) plans. Under the leadership of Prime Minister Modi, India is set to explore nearly 2.5 lakh square kilometres in new offshore and onshore areas, marking one of the world's largest bidding rounds. Puri underlined that India's efforts to increase the share of natural gas in its energy mix from 6 per cent to 15 per cent present significant opportunities for advanced technological partnerships. He noted that the drive towards greater E&P activity stands to benefit from Shell's cutting-edge technologies, paving the way for mutually beneficial collaborations that support India's energy security objectives. At the Seminar, Puri also met the Secretary General of OPEC, Haitham Al Ghais. They discussed India's strong partnership with OPEC and ways to ensure that oil markets remain balanced and predictable to support a smooth global transition into green and alternative energies, particularly in light of recent geopolitical challenges. As the world's third-largest importer of oil, India and OPEC, the grouping of major oil-producing countries, share a unique and symbiotic relationship. In his meeting with Murray Auchincloss, CEO of bp, Puri shared that their discussions were engaging and insightful. They took forward the ongoing dialogue on strengthening bp's partnership in India's upstream and downstream energy sector. BP has a longstanding and comprehensive engagement in India across the energy value chain and has participated in the 9th Round of OALP. Discussions also covered India's plans to aggressively enhance its domestic E&P capabilities by exploring 2.5 lakh sq km under OALP Round-10. Over the years, Indian PSUs have partnered with bp for E&P investment globally and are now collaborating in retail, natural gas, and compressed biogas, which are central to India's green energy transition. BP has also established a world-class Global Business and Technology Center in Pune which provides cutting-edge services to their global operations. Puri also met Russel Hardy, Group CEO of Vitol, where they discussed current challenges in the global energy markets and collaborations across the hydrocarbons value chain. (ANI)
India Gazette
6 days ago
- Business
- India Gazette
India aims to increase hydrocarbons exploration acreage to 1 million sq km by 2030: Hardeep Puri
Vienna [Austria], July 9 (ANI): India aims to increase its hydrocarbons exploration acreage to 0.5 million sq km by 2025 and 1.0 million sq km by 2030, Union Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas Hardeep Puri said. With 2.5 lakh sq km open for exploration under OALP Round-10, and being close to discovering a Guyana-scale oilfield in the Andaman Sea, India is in the midst of one of the most ambitious plans to enhance the efforts to drill for more and further enhance hydrocarbons exploration in the country, said the Minister at 9th OPEC International Seminar in Vienna. India is making significant efforts to increase its traditional fossil-based energy production, and the latest push is to explore the Andaman region. India plans to explore and drill for hydrocarbons with renewed momentum by exploring 2.5 lakh sq km under OALP-Round 10. The minister interacted on 'Oil Markets: Energy Security, Growth and Prosperity' with an audience of leaders, captains and professionals of global energy sector at the Seminar. This ambition to double exploration acreage, according to the Minister, is supported by a series of policy reforms including shifting from a Production Sharing Contract regime to a Revenue Sharing Model under HELP, and amendments to ORD Act 1948 to provide a robust framework for managing leases, improving safety, enabling dispute resolution, and supporting the integration of renewable energy sources in hydrocarbon projects. In addition, the government is reducing 'No-Go' areas by 99 per cent, and in the process freeing up over 1 million sqkm for exploration and production (E&P), and significant investments in basin data acquisition through national projects such as the National Seismic Program (NSP), Andaman Offshore Project, Mission Anveshan, and the Extended Continental Shelf Survey. India is the world's third-largest energy consumer with a demand of about 5.4 million barrels of oil per day. 'India's energy strategy is rooted in pragmatism, resilience, and fairness. India is both a structural growth engine and a long-term stabilizer of global oil markets,' the minister said. At the Seminar, the minister said India will contribute 25 per cent of the incremental global energy demand growth in future. 'We are navigating today's volatile global energy landscape through a multi-dimensional approach that includes diversifying our crude import sources from 27 to 40 countries now, enhancing domestic production, developing alternative fuel sources, transition towards gas based economy and aiming to become a global refining hub by increasing our refining capacity to 310 MMTPA by 2028 and augmenting petrochemical capacity to be a USD 300 billion industry by 2030,' the minister said. Even as the world was dealing with geopolitical difficulties, Puri said India successfully navigated the trilemma of energy availability, affordability, and sustainability; and was the only major economy in the world to reduce fuel prices even as oil prices skyrocketed globally. He apprised the Seminar that India aims to achieve energy independence by 2047 and reach Net Zero emissions by 2070. He also highlighted India's green energy transition, referring to biofuels. India launched the Global Biofuels Alliance which has over 29 countries and 14 international organisations, working together to scale up sustainable biofuels. Domestically, India is accelerating the use of ethanol, CBG, biodiesel and SAF as part of its decarbonization roadmap, the minister added. India today imports 80 per cent of its oil and 50 per cent of its natural gas needs. India is now importing oil and gas from as many countries as possible to meet its demand. (ANI)
