Union Petroleum Minister Veerappa Moily said he wants to reduce the amount of crude oil imported in the country 50 percent by 2020, 75 percent by 2025.
By 2030, he wants India to achieve self-sufficiency and energy independence, Moily said while addressing the International Energy Forum conference held recently.
He informed the conference that India relies on crude oil imports to meet 73 percent of its oil needs presently.
However, he intends to raise the import of liquefied natural gas (LNG) to meet the domestic requirement.
India has already secured deals to import about 14 million ton of LNG a year and is in discussion with suppliers for an additional 20 million ton per year, Moily said.
But he also raised concern about the high cost of the imported gas — at least $10 million to $12 per million metric British thermal units – compared to the domestic gas price of $4-$5 million mmBtu.
Moily said India, along with other Asian counterparts, is driving the demand growth for LNG noting that India’s LNG demand may grow at 5-6 percent a year till 2020 and 2-3 percent thereafter.
Owing to the decline in output from Reliance Industries’ offshore block, India is facing a widening gas shortage. Even gas output of state-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corp. declined to 5.58 billion cubic meter in 2012-13 from 6.03 bcm a year earlier.
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