India will emerge as the main driving force behind the global energy demand including renewable and natural gas and the country’s refining capacity would increase from 250 million tonnes per annum currently to 450 million tonnes by 2025 to keep self-reliance in sync with demand, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Monday.
Speaking at the India Energy Forum by CERAWeek, Modi said the coronavirus pandemic had resulted in global energy demand falling by one-third, investment decisions being impacted and predictions of a contraction in demand over the next few years.
He said the country is on track to meet its renewable energy target of adding 175 gigawatts (GW) of renewable energy to its electricity grid by 2022. “We are well on track to meet the commitment we made to the global community,” Modi said, adding that the country would continue to “fight climate change”. He said renewable energy helped the country “save around Rs 24,000 crore annually”.
Stating that India saw transformational reforms in the energy sector in the last five years, the Prime Minister highlighted changes in oil and gas exploration and production regime as well as gas marketing.
“India’s reform journey has been on the high speed in the last five years,” he emphasised. While the focus is to make India a gas-based economy, the nation would also be raising oil refining capacity from 250 million tonnes per annum currently to 450 million tonnes by 2025 to keep self-reliance in sync with demand, he said.
India’s energy future is bright and secure, Modi said, adding access to energy should be affordable and reliable. “Our energy sector will be growth-centric, investor-friendly and environment conscious,” he added.
As he showcased his government’s recent reforms in the sector to global investors, Modi said India is likely to see energy consumption double over the long term.
And, he stated that this would be happening at at a time the country embraces cleaner and renewable sources of energy at a fast pace.
Lauding India’s efforts of energy conservation, Modi said, “In the last six years, over 11 million smart LED street lights were installed. This has enabled an estimated energy saving of 60 billion units per year. The estimated greenhouse gas emission reduction with this programme is over 4.5 crore tonnes of CO2 annually.”
“Leading global bodies project that global demand will contract for the next few years. But these agencies project India as a leading consumer,” says the Prime Minister.
India, he said, was on track to meet its COP21 commitment of raising electricity generation from renewable energy sources to 175 gigawatts by 2022. “We have further extended the target to 450GW by 2030,” he said, adding India has one of the lowest carbon emissions.
The event is being attended by global CEOs and energy leaders from India and over 30 countries.
BP wants GST for gas
Global energy major BP Plc pitched for the inclusion of natural gas within the ambit of goods and services tax (GST) in India.
“GST has been a very welcome federal initiative to ease trade in India. We believe it would make sense to incorporate gas in that,” BP Group chief executive Bernard Looney said at the energy event.