Puri says India paid $120bn for petroleum imports in 2021-22
India’s fast-growing economy and demographic dividend will generate 25% of the global energy growth between 2020 and 2040, Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Hardeep Singh Puri has said.
India imports 85% of its petroleum requirements and paid approx. US$120 billion for petroleum product imports in FY 2021-22.
India is the world’s 3rd largest consumer of energy, 3rd largest consumer of crude oil, 4th largest refiner, 6th largest importer of petroleum products and 7th largest exporter of petroleum products as on date.
India’s energy demand is expected to grow at about 3% per annum by 2040, compared to the global rate of 1%, he told energy officials at re-dedication to the nation of ONGC’s iconic Sagar Samrat, a 50-year-old Mitsubishi-built Mobile Offshore Production Unit.
Puri stressed that the Government is ensuring that future generations enjoy energy security.
The Government intends to increase India’s exploration acreage to 0.5 million sq. km. by 2025 and 1.0 million sq km by 2030.
The Minister also said that the Government has been successful in reducing the ‘No Go’ area by 99%, thereby making available an additional approx. 1 million Sq.km. of India’s EEZ for exploration.
Several MNCs like Chevron, ExxonMobil, and Total Energies are showing keen interest to invest in the Indian E&P segment, and some are already in talks with ONGC for firming up mutually beneficial partnerships.
He highlighted policy reforms like Production Sharing Contract (PSC) regime, Discovered Small Field Policy, the Hydrocarbon Exploration and Licensing Policy, the Setting up of a National Data Repository, etc.
The government has also provided functional freedom to NOCs like ONGC and wider private sector participation by streamlining approval processes including an electronic single window mechanism, he elaborated.
Commissioned in 1973, Sagar Samrat was built at the Mitsubishi yard in Japan and set sail from Hiroshima on 3 April 1973. It drilled ONGC’s first Offshore well in 1974 in Mumbai Offshore region of Arabian Sea, then called the Bombay High.
Sagar Samrat turned tides of India’s oil fortune by putting it on the global oil map. In 32 years, Sagar Samrat has drilled almost 125 wells and has been involved with 14 key offshore oil and gas discoveries in India.
Initially a jack-up drilling rig, Sagar Samrat has now been converted into a Mobile Offshore Production Unit (MOPU).
The British engineering and consulting conglomerate Wood Group’s Mustang unit based in Texas carried out the front-end engineering and design for the vessel’s conversion.
MOPU Sagar Samrat commenced production on 23 December 2022. The vessel is presently deployed at Western Offshore (WO)-16 field, located 140-145 kilometres west of Mumbai.
Located adjacent to the ONGC’s existing WO-16 well head platform (WHP) in 76m of water depth, the vessel will be instrumental in producing from marginal fields in WO cluster thereby augmenting production from Western Offshore.
The MOPU is designed to handle 20,000 barrels per day of crude oil and has a maximum gas export capacity of 2.36 million cubic meters per day.
The Minister also invited all stakeholders to the upcoming India Energy Week being held from 6-8 Feb 2023 at the Bangalore International Exhibition Center (BIEC), Bengaluru. fiinews.com
