India to Step Up Oil Exploration, Production by 2025

New Delhi – India, which has “large additional areas” will intensify oil exploration and production by 2025, India’s Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas, Hardeep Singh Puri, announced on Monday.

“We intend to move forward in terms of oil exploration and production,” Puri said at the opening of the Indian pavilion at the Abu Dhabi International Petroleum Exhibition and Conference (ADIPEC).

According to Indian media reports, the minister also noted that India plans to double the area of oil and gas exploration in the country’s northeast from 30,000 square kilometers to 60,000 square kilometers, adding that his country also aims to expand the gas pipeline network to 34,000 kilometers.

“This means an investment of $60 billion in pipeline infrastructure alone, increasing refining capacity from 250 million to 400 million metric tons per year by 2030 and the gas mix from 6% to 15%,” he said.

At the COP26 in Glasgow, India set the goal of becoming carbon neutral by 2070. Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in India, the third largest polluter in the world, are increasing with an average of 2.3 billion tons of CO2 emitted per year.