India’s reliance on imported oil, natural gas grows as stagnant domestic production lags demand growth

India’s vigor request has been rising rapidly, starring to higher lipid and state imports. Reliance connected imported lipid has been increasing continuously implicit the past fewer years, but successful FY21, erstwhile request was suppressed owed to the COVID-19 pandemic. The country’s lipid import dependency stood astatine 87.8 per cent successful FY24, 87.4 per cent successful FY23, 85.5 per cent successful FY22, 84.4 per cent successful FY21, 85 per cent successful FY20, and 83.8 per cent successful FY19.

Heavy dependence connected imported crude lipid makes the Indian system susceptible to planetary lipid terms volatility, isolated from having a bearing connected the country’s commercialized deficit, overseas speech reserves, rupee’s speech rate, and inflation. The authorities wants to trim India’s reliance connected imported crude lipid but sluggish home lipid output successful the look of incessantly increasing request for petroleum products has been the biggest roadblock.

In the lawsuit of earthy gas, the authorities wants to summation its depletion and stock successful the country’s superior vigor premix to 15 per cent by 2030 from implicit 6 per cent currently. The rationale down the propulsion for earthy gas, adjacent though it would pb to higher state imports, is alternatively simple.

Natural state is acold little polluting than accepted hydrocarbons similar crude lipid and coal, and is usually cheaper than oil. It is besides seen arsenic a cardinal modulation fuel. To beryllium definite though, the authorities has besides been pushing India’s lipid and state companies to summation home accumulation of earthy state successful a bid to support import dependency levels nether check.

India’s crude lipid imports roseate to 120.5 cardinal tonnes successful H1 from 115.9 cardinal successful the year-ago period, portion home accumulation declined somewhat to 14.4 cardinal tonnes, per PPAC data. The country’s gross lipid import measure successful the archetypal six months of FY25 roseate astir 12 per cent year-on-year to $71.3 billion. Natural state imports roseate 23 per cent year-on-year to 18.98 cardinal cubic metres successful H1, and outgo $7.7 cardinal against $6.5 cardinal a twelvemonth ago.

In aboriginal 2015, the authorities had acceptable a people to trim reliance connected lipid imports to 67 per cent by 2022 from 77 per cent successful 2013-14, but the dependency has lone grown since. Cutting costly lipid imports continues to beryllium a cardinal absorption country for the government, which has taken a fig of argumentation measures to incentivise investments successful India’s lipid and state exploration and accumulation sector.

Reducing lipid imports is besides 1 of the cardinal objectives of the government’s propulsion for electrical mobility, biofuels, and different alternate fuels for proscription arsenic good arsenic industries. While determination has been a pick-up successful electrical mobility adoption and blending of biofuels with accepted fuels, it is not capable to offset petroleum request growth.

Total home depletion of petroleum products successful April-September was 117.7 cardinal tonnes, of which conscionable 13.8 cardinal tonnes came from domestically produced crude oil, resulting successful a self-sufficiency level of 11.8 per cent, per PPAC data.

Source: PPAC, Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas