The Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas Shri S.Jaipal Reddy  informed the Lok Sabha in a written reply today that India’s oil import bill in terms of value has increased from Rs 409,077 crore in 2009-10 to Rs 726,386 crore in 2011-12.  The details of the total oil import bill alongwith export of petroleum products from 2009-10 to 2011-12 are given below :-

He explained that  the increase in import bill of crude oil is due to increase in price of crude oil and petroleum products in the international market, depreciation of Rupee, increase in domestic consumption of petroleum products from 137.8 MMT in 2009-10 to 148.0 MMT in 2011-12 as well as on account of rise in the level of exports from 51.0 MMT in 2009-10 to 60.8 MMT in 2011-12.  Consumption and exports of value added products during 2011-12 contributed to higher level of GDP.  Increase in refining throughput has reduced import dependency on petroleum products and the country has exported petroleum products worth Rs 2, 84,643/- crore during 2011-12, the Minister added.

Shri Reddy elaborated several measures taken by the Government to mitigate the oil import bill. These, he said, include the following:-

i)          Carving out more areas of exploration for offer under various rounds of New Exploration Licensing Policy (NELP) / Coal Bed Methane (CBM) Policy.

ii)         Application of Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) / Improved Oil Recovery (IOR) techniques for increasing recovery factor from existing fields.

iii)        Acquisition of exploration acreages and producing properties overseas to bring in equity oil.

iv)        Substitution of oil through use of alternate/ non-conventional sources of energy such as Bio-Diesel, Ethanol-blended Petrol.

            Responding to other queries, he informed that the Fifth OPEC International Seminar, organized under the theme of “Petroleum: Fuelling Prosperity, Supporting Sustainability”, took place at Vienna on 13-14^th June, 2012.   The Seminar focused on the global energy scene, oil and the world economy, capacity expansion and investment and technology, environmental policies. Some of the sessions included: the expansionary long-term outlook for energy demand; different challenges facing capacity expansion and investment; the importance of clarity, consistency and predictability for investment strategies in the industry; the role of advanced technology in delivering new volumes of crude while also improving environmental standards; the uncertain impact of shale gas and oil, alternative transportation technologies and the development of LNG markets on the global energy markets; the use of oil as an asset class, the rise in speculative investment flows and the volatile impact of this on crude prices.

The Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas held a series of bilateral meetings with his counterparts from different countries, such as, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Algeria and Qatar  on the sidelines of the Seminar and had  wide-ranging talks aiming to enhance mutual cooperation in the oil & gas sector.  The talks focused on sourcing more crude oil, LNG, LPG and promoting investments in hydrocarbon sector projects.  The discussions focused on enhancing cooperation in the oil and gas sector.

The Minister met Minister of Petroleum & Mineral Resources, Saudi Arabia and asked for another 5 million tonnes per annum of crude oil from Saudi Arabia over and above the 32 million tonnes it had imported during 2011-12.  India also asked for an additional 1.5 million tonnes of LPG during the current year. 

The Minister, during the meeting with Minister of Energy and Mines, Algeria, asked for additional quantities of crude oil and expressed interest in investing in Algeria’s upcoming LNG sector with the objective of some quantities of LNG being booked for India.   

The Ministers of India and Qatar discussed matters of bilateral interest including the long term LNG contract between PLL and RasGas.

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RCJ/RKS