India plans to reduce the Import of Crude Oil to 50 percent by 2030. The Government plans to explore the feasibility of Petroleum Drilling and Extraction here itself. India’s domestic crude oil production is expected to reach 42.31 million metric tonnes ,MMT, during 2012-13, which is over 11 per cent higher than the previous year
According to Petroleum Minister Verappa Moiley, the Govt has formed a committee under the chairmanship of Vijay Kelkar to prepare a roadmap for enhancing domestic production of oil and gas so as to substantially reduce the nation’s import dependency by 2030.
The Minister said India is emerging as a refinery hub and its refining capacity is expected to reach over 239 million metric tonne in 2013-14, which exceeds the domestic demand. Mr Moily said petro-chemical complexes are planned to be set up near refineries for value addition in petroleum products.
He said ethanol blending with petrol is being implemented to promote conservation as mandated by the Centre. He said a provision has been made to increase LNG import facilities to meet the growing demand for gas in the country.
The minister said total gas pipeline network has increased to 15,400 kilometres with the commissioning of Dabol-Bangalore Pipeline in January this year. Mr Moily said his ministry is ready for direct cash transfer of subsidies to domestic LPG consumers provided there is convergence between Adhaar and banks. He said accounts of over 14 crore LPG consumers have been digitised so far.