Petroleum Minister Hardeep Singh Puri has defended India’s shift towards Russia for oil supply, as a move prompted by costly shipments from traditional Middle East suppliers. Top suppliers like Saudi Arabia and Iraq were charging a premium for crude oil supplies to Asian markets which compelled India to diversify its crude sources, according to reports quoting Puri in Davos. Elaborating on India’s remarkable policies on sustainability and green energy, Puri also emphasised that “India has seized the moment,” underlining India’s thrust on creating investor friendly policies to attract capital and technology for E&P activities.
Puri also held a series of meetings with key energy stakeholders on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos, discussing potential collaboration opportunities in Indian exploration and production sector, offshore wind sector and India’s gas opportunity as during his meeting with Anders Opedal, President & CEO of Equinor.
India as the 4th largest renewable capacity holder globally, has set a target to achieve 500 GW renewable energy capacity by 2030, Puri told Opedal and invited potential collaboration between Indian companies and Equinor in pursuit of the shared objective of achieving Net Zero. In another meeting with Jaime de Bourbon de Parme, the climate envoy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands and a member of the Dutch royal family, Puri extended an invitation to Netherlands to join the Global Biofuel Alliance launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Interacting with the President & CEO of Occidental Petroleum, in Davos, the petroleum minister highlighted opportunities to participate in the Indian E&P sector, using their CCUS technology for enhanced oil recovery. Puri also highlighted the reduction in India’s ‘no go’ areas for E&P by almost 99 per cent in April 2022 and opening up of approximately 0.91 million sqkm area for E&P. Besides the major steps to dramatically reduce previously ‘no-go’ areas, the Government has made India’s entire EEZs area of 2.36 million sqkm available for exploration activities, Puri informed the CEO of Occidental Petroleum.
The Minister explored the prospects of the Trafigura Group playing a pivotal role in securing affordable crude and LNG supplies with Jeremy Weir, Executive Chairman and CEO and Richard Holtum, Head of Gas, Power and Renewables and Member of the Executive Committee in Trafigura. The company has extensive presence across the energy value chain, connecting sources of energy to delivery points. Puri also discussed about global oil tanker movements with Weir and Holtum.
The Petroleum Minister expressed interest in fostering stronger collaborations between Indian companies and Honeywell during his meeting with Vimal Kapur, Global CEO of Honeywell. One key area is to work for the global Sustainable Aviation Fuel opportunity. The other potential areas are opportunities along the green hydrogen value chain including further R&D, technology transfer, manufacturing and development of electrolysers in India. Puri also discussed possible collaborations in areas of biofuels, carbon capture utilization and storage and the global biofuel alliance and invited Kapur to participate in the India Energy Week to be held in Goa in February 2024.
