Livemint | India demonstrated great resilience in face of global energy crisis: Hardeep Puri

Sep 11,2022

Union Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas, Hardeep Singh Puri has said that India has demonstrated great resilience in the face of global energy crisis & has taken several measures to minimize & mitigate the volatility of global crude oil & gas prices.

On 9 September, the Union Minister attended a Contract Exchange event to witness signing of contracts for 31 Discovered Small Fields (DSF) blocks under DSF bid round-III and 4 Coal Bed Methane (CBM) blocks under CBM bid round-V awarded to 14 Exploration & Production domestic companies.

He also unveiled the logo for India Energy Week (IEW) 2023, the Ministry’s flagship event taking place from 6th-8th February 2023 in Bengaluru, India.

Following the Contract Exchange event, the Minister said that, “India has demonstrated great resilience in the face of global energy crisis."

He further added, “…the Government of India has taken several measures to minimise and mitigate the volatility of global crude oil and gas prices. This enabled us to protect interests of Indian consumers."

He pointed out that, “Most of the developed nations have witnessed significant inflation rise in Gasoline price by almost 40% during July 21 to Aug’22, while in India, gasoline price has reduced by 2.12%."Puri also spoke about the issue of inflation in LPG mentioning that in last 24 months the Saudi benchmark price has increased by 303%, although during the same period, LPG price in India (Delhi) increased by less than a tenth of that figure i.e 28%.

The Union Minister also talked about India’s move towards a ‘gas based economy’. He spoke about the targets of connecting Indian consumers through the City Gas Distribution, enhancing regasification capacities, expanding pipeline networks and setting up CNG stations.

Government has been looking for greener alternatives and has taken many steps towards energy transition. Puri remarked, “Achievement of 10% blending of ethanol in petrol in May 2022, ahead of the November 2022 deadline, setting up of 2G refineries to make ethanol, and a host of other initiatives, is a symbol of Government’s resolve towards just energy transitions."“The Green Hydrogen Mission, under which the Ministry is facilitating setting-up pilot scale and commercial scale green hydrogen manufacturing plants by refineries is a part of this commitment," he added.

On the domestic fuel front, the minister praised the Ujjwala Yojna by saying that the significance of the scheme its role in ending energy poverty, ensuring social upliftment and as a catalyst of social change cannot be emphasised enough.

India Energy Week 2023
India Energy Week 2023 would be a flagship event of the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas. It will be the first major Energy event once India takes over G20 Presidency.

Puri stated that, “The event will provide an unprecedented opportunity for regional and international leaders and CEOs to come together for strategic policy and technical knowledge sharing for energy justice and energy transitions."