By KUNA
New Delhi : India Saturday announced that it was undertaking several measures including new exploration activities and acquiring oil assets abroad to enhance its energy security.
“Government of India and our oil companies have taken steps to enhance energy security for the country which includes: increasing exploration and production activities in the country, acquiring oil and gas assets abroad, strategic storage of crude oil, conservation and implementation of environment friendly policies”, Indias Minister for Petroleum Natural Gas Murli Deora said today at a National Seminar on “Opportunities in the Oil Gas Industry” in the Western Indian city of Mumbai. “Under our New Exploration Licensing Policy (NELP), 58 discoveries have been made by public/ private/ Joint Venture companies in 17 blocks. In the first six rounds of NELP, expected investment is of the order of 8 billion usd. Oil and oil equivalent gas in place reserve accretion under NELP is approximately 600 million metric tons,” the Minister said. Speaking about the Government’s desire to promote India as a competitive refining destination, Deora emphasised that this translated into huge opportunities for the Indian Capital Goods manufacturing companies. He called upon the industry to enhance their capacities and capabilities so that the oil and gas producers do not have to look at outside country for procurement. “This would be in the interest of the country and also the companies, since they will get faster and better service when need arises”, Deora stressed. Addressing the seminar, Secretary in the Indian Ministry of Petroleum Natural Gas M S Srinivasan said: “Nearly twenty five years ago India was importer of raw materials but now with huge projects and investments in oil and petroleum sector, India has started earning from exports.” “State of art pipeline and compressor technology has revolutionalised the importance of natural gas and in the next 10 years natural gas will surpass crude oil. We are forecasting a market of 300 billion usd for exploration equipment manufacturers by 2012”, Srinivasan stated. “Today Western Europe and United States are looking at Indian companies with growing interest since we have the capacity and capability, he stressed.