Prime Minister Narendra Modi will meet the chief executive officers (CEOs) of top global and Indian companies; including Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC), Qatar Petroleum, BP Plc, France’ Total S.A, Russia’s Rosneft and Reliance Industries on Monday, as India tries to expedite its energy security efforts.
This is the fifth such meeting that the Prime Minister will hold with CEOs of oil majors, and comes in the backdrop of India looking at private investment to raise domestic oil and gas production, which has stagnated for the last few years. India is dependent on imports to meet its 80% of the demand and more than half of its natural gas requirements.
The virtual meeting will also be attended by Mohammad Sanusi Barkindo, secretary general of Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec), that accounts for around 80% of India’s crude oil imports. The others to attend include; Fatih Birol, executive director of Paris-based International Energy Agency; Joseph Mc Monigle, secretary general of International Energy Forum; and Yury Sentyurin, secretary-general, Gas Exporting Countries Forum. India’ petroleum minister Dharmendra Pradhan will give the opening remarks.
“India is an important player in the global Oil and gas sector being the 3rd largest consumer of crude oil and the 4th largest LNG importer. Realizing the need for India to graduate from a passive consumer to an active and vocal stake-holder in the global Oil & Gas value chain, NITI Aayog initiated the first roundtable of global Oil & Gas CEOs with the Hon’ble Prime Minister of India in 2016.,” the Prime Minister Office said in a statement on Friday.
The meeting this year is expected to see participation from around 45 CEOs of major oil and gas firms and comes in the backdrop of CERAWeek’ India Energy Forum. The high-profile energy event led by Pulitzer prize-winning American author Daniel Yergin will be addressed by Saudi Arabia’ energy minister Abdulaziz bin Salman AI Saud and US energy secretary Dan Brouillette.
India is exploring the possibility of storing crude oil in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve of the US as part of its energy security strategy.
Such an arrangement will help India to tackle emergency situations and help it tide over short-term supply disruptions.
PM Modi in 2015 had set a target of reducing India’s oil dependence by 10% to 67% (based on import dependence of 77% in 2014-15) by 2022.
“The objective behind the meeting is to deliver a global platform to understand best-practices, discuss reforms, and inform strategies for accelerating investments into the Indian Oil and Gas value chain. The annual interaction has gradually become one of the most important gatherings of not only intellectual debate but also of executive action. The event also grows in stature with the rise of India, the world's third-largest energy consumer, which is likely to see over USD 300 billion investment by 2030 in the Oil & Gas sector to meet rising demand,” the statement added.
Catch all the Industry News, Banking News and Updates on Live Mint. Download The Mint News App to get Daily Market Updates.