Davos [Switzerland], January 23 : The American sanctions on Russia and threats of further punitive actions by the new Trump administration will have "limited effect" on India, said Indian Oil Chairman Arvinder Singh Sahney. He backed his argument stating that India has multiple sources to meet its energy needs.
"It is not a very difficult thing to handle because it has a very limited effect. Whatever sanctions are there, we are abiding by them," Sahney toldfrom Davos, two days after the new US administration was inaugurated.
"And going forward we have a very different kind of alliances and different kind of sources that are already available in the market," Sahney added. "We have OPEC, we have OPEC+, we have other than OPEC, and we have Gulf."
Soon after assuming office, President Donald Trump called for an immediate resolution to the ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine and warned of potential economic consequences for Russia, including "taxes, tariffs, and sanctions."
The previous Biden administration had already imposed heavy sanctions on various entities in Russia since the Ukraine conflict began in February of 2022.
"Other than OPEC, we have Guyana, Brazil, the US itself now that our government is also willing to go ahead with that and increase our exposure to US crude also, so we have enough options available, so there is no issue as far as supplies of crude to India as such is concerned," IOC Chairman asserted.
Asked about international crude prices and how he sees it going ahead, Sahney said he expects them to remain range bound between USD 75 to USD 80 per barrel with a bias towards USD 75.
"It has already gone up and I have, although I have an interest in seeing them on the lower side, but still, as per my assessment and as for the assessment of my company, whatever we have done in detail, we see that it will remain range bound from 75 to 80 and more so towards 75," he said.
At present, international crude prices are trading at about USD 75.5 per barrel.
IOC Chairman was asked about plans for city gas distribution network expansion, to which he said that their hands were full.
"We already have around 47 GAs (geographical areas) as standalone Indian Oil and with a couple of our JV partners, which is out of around 295-300 odd numbers," he noted.
"We have our hands full. We have a very good chunk of CGD (city gas distribution) business that we are doing and we are trying to develop infrastructure to the extent possible, and we are trying to give more and more connections to the people," he said.
On whether Indian Oil is looking at any fresh acquisition plans, he said, "No. As of now, we don't have any active acquisition plan."
On the green hydrogen space, he said that the state-owned company's Panipat plant will be commissioned within 2 years.
"Hydrogen plant is now alive. We have got very good bids for it, and now the tenders are under evaluation and within a within a month or so we will be able to award the job and within 2 years that green hydrogen plant of 10,000 tonnes per annum capacity at Panipat will be commissioned," Sahney said.
India meets a sizable portion of its energy needs through fossil fuels, and various renewable energy sources, including green hydrogen, are seen as an avenue to reduce the dependence on conventional sources of power.
Green energy for climate mitigation is not just a focus area for India but has gained momentum globally.
India launched its National Green Hydrogen Mission in January 2023 with an overall outlay of Rs 19,744 crores. India has set an ambitious target to achieve a green hydrogen production capacity of 5 million tonnes by the end of the year 2030.
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