Government set out a road map for reducing India’s crude oil imports by 10% by 2022
Minister of Petroleum & Natural Gas and Steel Shri Dharmendra Pradhan has said that India is all for a reasonable and responsive pricing of crude. Speaking at Swarajya Webiner Event on Aatmanirbhar Bharat today, he said that gone are the days of monopoly, and the producers should take into account the consumers’ viewpoint also. The Minister said that India is currently using only 6% of the world’s primary energy and the per capita consumption of energy is still one-third of the global average. But, this is rapidly changing. India will drive the growth in global energy demand as its energy consumption is projected to grow at 3 percent per annum up to 2040,
Talking about efforts to shift towards a gas-based economy, Shri Pradhan said that it is a vital low carbon pathway enabling the energy transition. “We have already laid over 16,800 km long gas pipeline network, while an additional 14,700-km gas pipelines are under different stages of construction. Largest ever roll-out of city gas distribution networks across India has been undertaken to enable inclusive growth. Plans have been chalked out to provide Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) and Piped Natural Gas (PNG) infrastructure in most parts of the country. The CNG and PNG infrastructure will be provided in 407 districts. PNG connection for household has increased from 25 lakh in 2014 to 63 lakh now and is being further provided to 40 million and similarly CNG connection has increased from 938 in 2014 to 2350 now is being further put up to 10,000 CNG stations.
