India marches towards energy self-reliance, but imports still crucial: Hardeep Puri

New Delhi [India], August 8 : Union Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas Hardeep Singh Puri on Friday highlighted India's strides in clean energy and domestic fuel production, while acknowledging that the country still relies heavily on imports to meet its growing energy needs.

"We already have 113 compressed biogas (CBG) plants operating and another 73 under construction," he said on the progress of bioenergy and natural gas space.

"If you look at the car models coming onto the market, many new ones are CNG-compatible. So that's a success story," the minister told reporters on the sidelines of Pioneer Biofuels 360 Summit here in the national capital.

The Minister pointed to India's liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) distribution as another example of progress in energy access.

"Today, we are running against all statistics," he said. "We have 33.5 crore LPG connections in the country, including 10.5 crore under the Ujjwala Yojana, yet we still import about 60 per cent of our LPG."

While acknowledging the import dependency, Puri reaffirmed that the country is taking decisive steps to increase domestic production.

"Our refineries are going to produce more. We are going to do more in exploration and production (E&P)," he said.

Regarding natural gas, Minister Puri noted that domestic production is witnessing healthy growth.

"Yes, our production is going up by 18 per cent per year, but even there we are still importing around 50 per cent," he said.

Minister Puri stressed on the country's commitment to Atmanirbhar Bharat or self-reliant India.

"A country like India, which has these challenges, is moving in the direction of self-sufficiency, but it's going to take time," he stated. "Meanwhile, we will import, we will increase our production, and we've already diversified our import sources."

India is the world's third-largest energy consumer with a demand of about 5.4 million barrels of oil per day.

India today imports 80 per cent of its oil and 50 per cent of its natural gas needs. India is now importing oil and gas from as many countries as possible, about 40 countries now, to meet its demand.

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