Overview

Oil and gas sector is among the eight core industries in India and plays a major role in influencing decision making for all the other important sections of the economy. India’s economic growth is closely related to its energy demand, therefore, the need for oil and gas is projected to grow more, thereby making the sector quite conducive for investment. The Government has adopted several policies to fulfil the increasing demand. It has allowed 100% Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in many segments of the sector, including natural gas, petroleum products and refineries among others. Today, it attracts both domestic and foreign investment as attested by the presence of Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) and Cairn India. According to IEA (India Energy Outlook 2021), primary energy demand is expected to nearly double to 1,123 million tonnes of oil equivalent, as the country's gross domestic product (GDP) is expected to increase to USD 8.6 trillion by 2040.

Market Size

India is expected to be one of the largest contributors to non-OECD petroleum consumption growth globally. Crude Oil import rose sharply to US$ 101.4 billion in 2019-20 from US$ 70.72 billion in 2016-17. As of September 01, 2021, the sector’s total installed provisional refinery capacity stood at 246.90 MMT and IOC emerged as the largest domestic refiner, with a capacity of 69.7 MMT. In FY20, crude oil production in India stood at 32.2 MMT. Crude oil production stood at 4.9 MMT in FY22 (April-May 2021) and was 30.5 MMT for FY21. In FY20, crude oil import increased to 4.54 mbpd from 4.53 mbpd in FY19. Natural Gas consumption is forecast to reach 143.08 million tonnes (MT) by 2040. India’s LNG import stood at 33.68 bcm during FY20. According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), consumption of natural gas in India is expected to grow by 25 billion cubic metres (bcm), registering an average annual growth of 9% until 2024.

Road Ahead

Energy demand of India is anticipated to grow faster than energy demand of all major economies on the back of continuous robust economic growth. India’s energy demand is expected to double to 1,516 Mtoe by 2035 from 753.7 Mtoe in 2017. Moreover, the country’s share in global primary energy consumption is projected to increase by two-fold by 2035.