Lok Sabha Question No. 1709 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2024-08-01
Subject: Energy Consumption in India
Ministry: PETROLEUM AND NATURAL GAS
Asked by: Dr. Shrikant Eknath Shinde

## LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 1709 TO BE ANSWERED ON 01 st  August 2024

## Energy Consumption in India

## 1709. DR. SHRIKANT EKNATH SHINDE:

## पेůोिलयम और ÿाक ृ ितक गैस मंýी

## Will the Minister of PETROLEUM AND NATURAL GAS be pleased to state:

(a) the factors that contribute to India being the world's third-largest consumer of energy and crude oil;

(b)  the  manner  in  which  this  demand  affect  the  country's  energy  security  and  economic stability;

(c) the recent trends in India's import dependency for natural gas and the measures taken to reduce it;

(d) the key drivers of this change; and

(e) the manner in which India is preparing to meet its energy demand and reduce its import dependency?

## ANSWER

## पेůोिलयम और ÿाक ृ ितक गैस मं ýालय म¤ राºय मं ýी ( ®ी सुरेश गोपी )

## MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF PETROLEUM AND NATURAL GAS (SHRI SURESH GOPI)

(a) to (b) As per Statistical Review of World Energy, 2024 published by Energy Institute (EI), the primary energy consumption of India during 2023 was 39.02 Exajoules i.e. 6.3% of the total primary consumption of the world (619.63 Exajoules) and the growth rate of Indian oil and  natural  gas  sector  was  5.1%  during  2023  (12.82  Exajoules)  vis-à-vis  2022  (12.20 Exajoules).

It  has  been  assessed  by  various  entities  that  the  major  factors  contributing  towards  India's increasing consumption of energy include sustained economic growth over the last few years resulting  in  industrialisation,  urbanisation,  transportation  needs,  infrastructure  development, rising income, improved standard of living, increased access to modern energy coupled with increase in private consumption and gross fixed capital formation, etc.

Government  has  adopted  a  multi-pronged  strategy  to  improve  energy  security  which comprises  increasing  domestic  production  of  oil  and  gas,  promoting  energy  efficiency  and conservation  measures,  giving  thrust  on  demand  substitution,  promoting  biofuels  and  other alternate  fuels/  renewables,  EV  charging  facilities  and  refinery  process  improvements.  In addition,  Government  has  launched  National  Biofuel  Policy,  2018,  to  boost  availability  of biofuels  in  country  and  use  of  alternative  clean  fuels  like  ethanol,  bio-diesel  and  bio-CNG through  schemes  for  Ethanol  Blending,  Bio-diesel  blending  and  Sustainable  Alternative Towards  Affordable  Transportation.  Government  has  also  taken  various  initiatives  towards economic stability  through  growth-promoting  policies  which, inter-alia, includes  Capex-led

growth  strategy,  comprehensive  reforms  in  foreign  direct  investment,  controlling  inflation, Good and Services Tax Reforms, cut in the Corporate tax rate, the Make in India and Start -up India strategies and Production linked incentive schemes, etc.

(c) to (e) The India's import dependency on Natural Gas have shown decreasing trends during the last four years:

| Description                          |   2020-21 |   2021-22 |   2022-23 |   2023-24 |
|--------------------------------------|-----------|-----------|-----------|-----------|
| Import Dependency on Natural Gas (%) |      54.4 |      48.4 |      43.9 |      47.1 |

Source: PPAC

The  reduction  in  import  dependency  is  mainly  due  to  recent  initiatives  taken  by  the Government,  which, inter-alia ,  include  reforms  such  as  Hydrocarbon  Exploration  and Licensing  Policy  (HELP),  Discovered  Small  Field  (DSF)  Policy,  Open  Acreage  Licensing (OALP)  Policy,  Policy  framework  for  exploration  and  exploitation  of  Coal  Bed  Methane (CBM), relaxing  processes and approvals  to  promote 'Ease  of  Doing  Business', and fiscal incentives  for  early  monetization  of  fields  along  with  Marketing  and  Pricing  freedom  for natural gas, etc. Government has also launched Sustainable Alternative Towards Affordable Transportation  (SATAT)  initiative  in  2018,  with  the  aim  of  establishing  an  ecosystem  for production  of  Compressed  Bio  Gas  (CBG)  from  various  waste/  biomass  sources.  These initiatives  have  shown  results,  the  gross  domestic  production  of  Natural  gas  has  increased from  28.67  billion  cubic  meters  (BCM)  in  2020-21  to  36.44  BCM  in  2023-24  showing  a growth of more than 27% during this period.

*****