India is hotspot of world energy market: Dharmendra Pradhan

"Asia is the new destination, within Asia, India is the destination. In the next two decades, India is going to contribute in a big way," said Dharmendra Pradhan, Indian Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas. "There is no meaning of deadline, headline and targets for us. We are moving ahead of that," he added. Read the full interview and view the video:

Mr. Dharmendra Pradhan, Indian Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas, has emphasized that India is the energy hotspot of the world energy market and all the major global energy players are eyeing the Indian market for investment. He is confident that the 60 million MT giant refinery project at Roha near Mumbai proposed by a global consortium involving India's IOC, BP, and HP, Saudi’s ARMACO and UAE’s ADNOC, will be commissioned on time as all the stakeholders are now aligned and the work is progressing.

The growing foreign investment in India's energy sector got a shot in the arm after the International Energy Agency (IEA) in its report - World Energy Investment 2019 - declared India as the fastest-growing energy market in the world. Dharmendra Pradhan is very much hopeful about huge foreign investments in diversifying the energy basket of the country. Devdiscourse catches up with Pradhan during his visit to Abu Dhabi (UAE) for 8th Asian Ministerial Energy Roundtable on the sidelines of the 24th World Energy Congress 2019 on September 10, 2019. 

In a conversation with Siddheshwar Shukla, Associate Editor, Devdiscourse, Dharmendra Pradhan shares his government's vision on energy transition, energy security, energy justice and how India is the new destination for global energy players. The Edited excerpts and the Video:   

Q.1. There are reports of cost escalation in US$ 44 billion refinery project proposed by a global consortium at Roha near Mumbai. What is your view?

Dharmendra Pradhan: See, why are you so interested in the escalation? Looking into India’s appetite, it should be a state of the art refinery primarily giving emphasis on petrochemicals and it should fulfill the long term requirements of India and the neighbourhoods. There are four major stakeholders -  two business groups including an Indian consortium (Indian Oil Corporation, Bharat Petroleum, and Hindustan Petroleum) and another foreign consortium (ARMACO and ADNOC), local government, Maharashtra State Government and the Union Government. All four stakeholders are in alignment. When I say all are aligning, all are aligning and the commissioning date is part of that. I am more interested in the size and scale of the refinery. Though planned to be implemented in stages, the final capacity of this joint venture greenfield refinery project will be 60 million MT.

Q. 2. Which are the other major global energy companies investing in India?

Pradhan: BP (UK) is there; Total (France) is very much interested, Rosneft (Russia) and Novatek (Russia) are also investing. I have been to Russia recently.

India is an energy hotspot of the world energy market. Asia is the new destination, within Asia, India is the destination. In the next two decades, India is going to contribute in a big way. Our CAGR growth rate will be 4.5 for the next few years. So all the major energy players of the new technology in the renewables and also in biofuels, all are eyeing towards the Indian market.

BP and Reliance both are coming in a big way, and they are most welcome!

 

 

Q.3. Indian LNG major PLL had planned to buy stakes in Qatar Petroleum. What is progress?  

Pradhan: This is a business relationship between Qatargas (Qatar), RasGas (Qatar) and PLL (India). But broadly, I can say the energy dynamics are changing very fast. We have to be more open. Affordability is a new buzz word coming up. There are a lot of things happening in the energy world.

Q.4. How is the energy relations of India with major fossil fuel economies of the world?

Pradhan: From the consumer point of view whenever I meet OPEC, Saudi Arab or any oil major in Iraq, UAE, Qatar, Russia, USA, Australia and Nigeria, we all are very consistent on points – India is an emerging market, it’s a developing economy, our energy appetite is unimaginable. It's huge! Simultaneously, we are prize sensitive country. We need reasonable price, responsible price. It should be mutually complementary to both the parties – producer group and consumer group.

Q.5. What are the plans of India for renewable energy?

Pradhan: India is strategizing its need at multi-level. We will be using all the sources of energy, and all the sources of fuel for our energy requirement. 

Q.6. Besides solar energy, what are the other areas of renewable energy India is looking for?

Pradhan: All kinds of energy. I am in-charge of transportation energy and cooking fuel. Our priority is energy from all the sources primarily from fossil fuel and renewables – solar, wind and biofuels. We are very much focused on bio-ethanol, bio-diesel, and biogas. We are very much depending on that.

Q.7. What are your energy targets?

Pradhan: I am not in the business of targeting and headlines. I am a policy frame worker so I do the things consistently. You know, my prime minister is a very visionary prime minister. He is committed to give energy justice to all our citizens i.e. clean energy, affordable energy, sustainable energy and energy must be accessible. Prime Minister Narendra Modi moves ahead of targets. I can cite you two examples - firstly, he committed the countrymen will be given 80 million LPG connection under the Pradhan Mantri Ujjawala Yojana by the end of FY 2019-20. On 7^th September 2019, before 7 months of the deadline, we fulfilled our target of the 80 million. So we are ahead of deadlines. Simultaneously, we have electrified 24 million rural households. By next year, we will be completing 100 percent electrification in all the households of India for those who can afford. There is no meaning of deadline, headline and targets for us. We are moving ahead of that.

Q.8. What is the progress on Liquefied Natural Gas?

Pradhan: When we took responsibility in 2014, we were importing LNG from Qatar only. Now we are importing LNG from Russia, Australia and the USA. In those days, we were importing around 7 million metric tons of term and 2-3 million metric tons of spot contract. Today, putting together it is nearing 25 million metric tons out of which 18 million metric tons are term and spot contract from these four countries and from all over the world we are importing LNG.

Thank you!