Expert committee mulls strategy to reduce oil import

A High Level Committee of companies has submitted short-term, medium-term & long-term strategies to reduce India’s rapidly swelling oil imports to the Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas. In 2018, India consumed 204.92 MMT of petroleum products and 58.64 BCM natural gas. There was almost a stagnation in the domestic production of crude oil and natural gas and the estimated import dependency of crude oil and liquefied natural gas (LNG) during the year was 82.59% and 45.89% respectively. This is expected to increase further. The committee “also explored the need and possibility of formation of a new entity dealing with oil services and supply of qualified manpower to oil and gas sector around the world,” the ministry stated.