EIA report says India is 4th largest energy consumer

In its latest report on energy outlook for India, the US Energy Information Administration (EIA) said India is the fourth largest energy consumer in the world after the United States, China, and Russia.

But the per capita energy consumption of India remains lower than that of developed countries, says the report. In recent years, with the sluggish growth in domestic energy output, Indian national oil companies are increasingly purchasing equity stakes in overseas oil fields, the report said.

The country depends heavily on imported crude oil, mostly from the Middle East, it added. In 2004, India started importing liquefied natural gas from Qatar and increasingly relies on imports to meet domestic natural gas needs.

At the end of 2012, the country had 5.5 billion barrels of proved oil reserves, mostly in the western part of the country, the report said. At the end of 2012, India had 43.8 trillion cubic feet of natural gas reserves, mostly located offshore.

The two biggest state-owned oil companies, ONGC and Oil India, dominate the country’s upstream gas sector, the report said.