Moneycontrol | India will contribute to 25% of global energy demand by 2040: Hardeep Singh Puri

Jan 10,2023

India was able to navigate the “most formidable energy crisis” on account of its four-pronged energy security strategy, including diversification of energy supplies, increasing India's exploration & production footprint, meeting energy transition through gas-based economy and green hydrogen and electric vehicles, the minister said.

“The government of India intends to increase India's exploration acreage to 0.5 million sq km by 2025 and 1 million sq. km. by 2030,” the minister said. The government successfully reduced the 'No Go' area by 99 percent, opening .91 million sq km of acreage.

“…we have also established the National Data Repository (NDR) and plans are afoot for a cloud-based and AI/ML-powered National Data NDR 2.0,” the minister added. He was referring to an exploration and production data bank for the preservation, upkeep and dissemination of information for the country’s sedimentary basins.

Puri also reiterated the government’s plan to achieve 20 percent ethanol blending in petrol by 2025.

India has increased ethanol blending in petrol from around 1.6 percent in 2013-14 to 10.17 percent in 2022.

“The phased rollout of E20 will commence on 1st April 2023. The government is also setting up five 2G ethanol biorefineries in the country at Panipat (Parali) in Haryana, Bathinda in Punjab, Bargarh (Parali) in Odisha, Numaligarh (Bamboo) in Assam and Devangere in Karnataka,” he said.

Talking about the government’s plan to invest Rs 19,744 crore into the National Green Hydrogen Mission, Puri said his ministry would aggressively pursue green hydrogen to support the development of the nascent industry.

The cabinet on January 4 approved the much-awaited National Green Hydrogen Mission with an initial outlay of Rs 19,744 crore.

“OMCs (Oil Marketing Companies) are targeting the installation of alternate fuel stations (EV charging/ CNG/ LPG/ LNG/ CBG etc.) at 22,000 retail outlets by May 2024,” the minister said.