India, the world’s fourth largest oil importer, made a strong pitch to attract potential US players to invest in India’s energy and petroleum growth during a two-day investors meet held recently in Houston, Indian news agency PTI reported.
India’s unique geology offers attractive opportunities especially in unexplored offshore areas, Shri Hardeep S Puri, minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas, said during his keynote address at the event, adding that the country has several analogous basins where oil and gas discoveries are proven and operations have been undertaken.
Jain also said that the Indian government has designed a liberal and transparent policy where most sectors are now open to FDI under the automatic route. In exploration activities of oil and natural gas fields as well 100% FDI is allowed under the automatic route. The measures by Indian government have resulted in India attracting its highest ever FDI inflow of $83.57 billion during 2021-22, Jain said.
The minister also discussed the latest offering of discovered fields, ease of doing business for bidding and assured an open-door policy to resolve any issue faced by the industry as he sought foreign and private investments to boost domestic oil and gas production.
“India is the world’s 4th largest oil importer and the demand is expected to rise driven by an increase in India’s per capita consumption of energy which currently stands at one-third of the global average. India wants to be the new destination for global energy players. Oil producers worldwide are eager to gain a foothold in India, where fuel demand is expected to keep rising as the country’s economy grows,” he said.
LNG imports, Jain said, are expected to quadruple to 124 Bcm, or about 61% of total gas demand by 2040. This would be up from imports of 76 Bcm, or about 58% of gas consumption.
“By 2030, India will spend billions of dollars on building infrastructure to promote the use of clean fuels,” Jain said.
In August, India’s state-controlled Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) signed an agreement with US oil major Exxon Mobil Corp for deepwater exploration off India’s East and West coasts.
“The collaboration areas focus on the Krishna Godavari and Cauvery Basins in the eastern offshore and the Kutch-Mumbai region in the western offshore,” ONGC in a stock exchange filing.
India-Aramco relations
Earlier this year, Indian conglomerate Adani Group said it is exploring potential partnerships in Saudi Arabia, including the possibility of buying a stake in the world’s largest oil exporter, Bloomberg reported.
The group, led by Indian tycoon Gautam Adani, has held preliminary talks on a range of potential cooperation and joint investment opportunities with Saudi Aramco and the country’s Public Investment Fund, according to the people including the idea of buying part of the PIF’s stake in Aramco.
