The Minister of State for Petroleum and Natural Gas, Shri Rameswar Teli in a written reply to a question in the Rajya Sabha today informed that the World Oil Outlook 2021, flagship publication by Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), has projected that the oil demand in India is expected to reach around 11 million barrels per day by 2045 as compared to approximately 4.9 million barrels per day in 2021.

Government is taking various steps to provide for the country’s  energy security including Tamil Nadu, through, inter alia, increasing domestic production of oil and gas in all States of India, diversifying import sources to new countries and regions; and diversifying energy sources beyond traditional hydrocarbons’ to emerging fuels like Ethanol, Compressed Bio Gas, Hydrogen etc through schemes such as Ethanol Blending Program (EBP), Sustainable Alternative Towards Affordable Transportation (SATAT) etc.

Also, Government has been taking up the issue, bilaterally with crude oil producing countries with OPEC and with heads of other international fora to convey India's serious concerns over crude oil price volatility, and India's strong preference for responsible and reasonable pricing for consumer countries.

******

YB/RKM