25% of global energy demand growth in the next 2 decades is going to emanate out of India, said Hardeep S. Puri, Union Minister of Petroleum & Natural Gas and Housing and Urban Affairs today.

Puri was addressing a roundtable on “Opportunities in the India-US Strategic Partnership” at Houston, Texas, organized by US-India Strategic Partnership Forum.

During the roundtable he remarked that India’s energy strategy is mindful of commitments to the global commons, to Green Transition and to ensure Energy Availability, Affordability and Security to all.

The minister noted that India had taken many steps towards low carbon development, including through emerging fuels like hydrogen and bio-fuels.

“Despite the current challenging energy environment, India’s commitment to energy transitions and its climate mitigation goals is not going to diminish,” he said.

Mr Puri also stated that India was undertaking major reforms to rationalize and incentivize. Exploration & Production by reducing the no-go areas by 99% opening up approx. 1 million sq kms, making good quality geological data available through the National Depository Registry etc.

As a gesture of commitment of Government of India to E & P sector, the special Coal-bed Methane (CBM) round & offshore bid rounds in the oil and gas capital of the world (Houston) offering over 2.3 Sq lakh km, after opening up over 1 million sq kms of No Go areas recently, was launched by the Minister.

In a series of tweets, Hardeep Puri stated that the immense potential between the two countries in areas of biofuels, gas based economy, green hydrogen, petrochemicals & upstream sectors is evident and is being furthered by collaboration by our private sector companies. He further stated, “Due to reform measures by Modi Govt, there is unprecedented interest in Indian E&P by global oil companies.”

The roundtable brought together over 60 participants from 35 companies, including Senior leadership of energy majors like Exxonmobil, Chevron, Chieniere, Lanzatech, Honeywell, BakerHughes, Emerson, Tellurian to name a few. Indian Energy PSUs also attended the event.