India will be driver of global energy demand: Dharmendra Pradhan inaugurates India Pavilion at Abu Dhabi Exhibition

Abu Dhabi, November 11: Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan inaugurated the India Pavilion at the Abu Dhabi International Petroleum Exhibition and Conference (ADIPEC) today. The Pavilion has been set up by 9 Indian Oil & Gas companies from the upstream, midstream, downstream and engineering segments, alongwith Federation of Indian Petroleum Industry (FIPI), Directorate General of Hydrocarbons (DGH) and Confederation of Indian Industry (CII).

 

Inaugurating the exhibition, Dharmendra Pradhan said that India has a huge appetite for energy and will be a driver of global energy demand in coming decades. In fact, oil and gas would continue to play a critical role in meeting our energy requirement in coming two decades even as we adopt renewable energy. 

The Minister further said, “Our focus is to attract global investments into the oil and gas sector, as India would invest 100 billion dollars by 2024 in refining, pipelines and gas terminals. There is no better place to invest if you are in the business of energy. Political stability, predictable policies and a huge diverse market make India an attractive investment destination for global investors. We have recently liberalized the entry norms for fuel retailing which has paved way for entry of new players in the fuel retailing space and enhancing competition.”

 

“We are working to make PM Modi’s vision to make India a gas based economy and working for a cleaner and greener environment. For this we will be working on investing in gas based infrastructure like increase in CGD and PNG network and gas based industries,” the Minister added.

 

Pradhan further said that Global energy transition is driven by Asia becoming the centre of energy consumption, greater availability of LNG, greater promise of energy independence through renewables including solar and wind energy, emergence of US a leading hydrocarbons exporter and the urgency to meet COP 21 Paris climate commitments.