US, India signs several agreements at Strategic Energy Partnership ministerial meeting

New Delhi, July 18: Union Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas Dharmendra Pradhan and US Secretary of Energy Dan Brouillette in a virtual ministerial meeting of the US-India Strategic Energy Partnership strengthened co-operation between India and US after a number of agreements and partnerships were announced to advance the strategic and economic interests of both countries.

 

 

 

In this meeting, India and the US have signed an MoU to begin cooperation on Strategic Petroleum Reserves operation and maintenance, including the exchange of information and best practices. They also discussed the possibility of India storing oil in the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve to increase their nation’s strategic oil stockpile. The discussions covered the entire gamut of bilateral energy issues.

 

 

Pradhan said that the two countries are in an advanced stage of discussion to store crude oil in America to increase India's stockpile. India-U.S. relationship has witnessed significant growth and expansion in the last few years, especially through the energy component and the Strategic Energy Partnership, which is now recognised as a key constituent of our bilateral engagement.

 

 

They launched a public-private Hydrogen Task Force to help scale up technologies to produce hydrogen from renewable energy and fossil fuel sources and to bring down the cost of deployment for enhanced energy security and resiliency. They also signed an MOU to collaborate on India’s first-ever Solar Decathlon India in 2021, establishing a collegiate competition to prepare the next generation of building professionals to design and build high-efficiency buildings powered by renewables.

 

US and India also agreed to explore possible cooperation through joint activities and information exchange on sustainable biofuel production and use, in particular, bioethanol, renewable diesel, other advanced biofuels, and discussion on possible developments in sustainable biofuels for air and sea transport. They also noted the significant increase in bilateral hydrocarbon trade since the establishment of SEP, with the bilateral hydrocarbon trade touching $9.2 billion during 2019-20, marking a 93 percent increase since 2017-18, and affirmed to promote greater hydrocarbon trade between the two countries.

 

Through the U.S.-India Natural Gas Task Force, U.S. and Indian industry forged new commercial partnerships on innovative projects and developed a series of policy and regulatory recommendations to support the Government of India’s vision to increase the share of natural gas in India’s energy sector. The sides have also held numerous public-private dialogues to provide industry perspectives on challenges and opportunities to trade and investment across the energy sector.

 

They also took note of their governments’ strong commitment to advance our civil nuclear cooperation and welcomed recent progress on the Westinghouse commercial reactor project at Kovvada, which represents an important milestone in our strategic relationship.

 

In regards to Atmanirbhar Bharat Mission, Pradhan informed that has invited the US Government and US companies to join the Atmanirbhar Bharat Mission, which aims to transform India into a global manufacturing hub of the 21st century, particularly in the development of energy infrastructure. The MOU will strengthen India’s energy security and pave the way for greater US investments and collaborations in India’s future SPR programs.