17 Feb : The Minister of Petroleum & Natural Gas Shri Murli Deora informed the Rajya Sabha in a written reply today that India’s demand for petroleum products during 2008-09 is estimated to be 133.4 Million Metric Tonnes(MMT), which is higher by 4.5 MMT(about 0.10 million barrels/day) as compared to 2007-08
Shri Deora also said that with the commissioning of a new Refinery in the Jamnagar SEZ, the crude requirement is expected to increase in the first quarter of 2009 by about 0.15 million barrels/day. Outlining the steps taken by the Government, the Minister said that the Government has taken the following steps to meet the increased oil demand and to improve India’s oil production:
i) Carving out more and more areas for exploration for offer under various rounds of New Exploration Licensing Policy (NELP), Coal Bed Methane(CBM) policy.
ii) Quicker development of discovered reserves for enabling commencement of production.
iii) Use of stimulation techniques for increasing production from existing fields.
iv) Application of Enhanced Oil Recovery(EOR)/Improved Oil Recovery (IOR) techniques for increasing recovery from existing fields.
v) Arresting decline from ageing fields.
vi) Acquisition of exploration acreages and oil producing properties overseas to bring in equity oil.
vii) Substitution of oil in the transport sector through use of alternative fuels such as Bio-diesel, ethanol-blended petrol, etc.
viii) Extraction of gas from gas hydrates under National Gas Hydrates Programme (NGHP) by evolving suitable production technology.