On January 10, 2020, the International Energy Agency (IEA) launched India’s Energy Policy Report. The report insisted that India should adopt its think tank NITI Aayog’s National Energy Policy. IEA released its “India Report 2020”, in collaboration with NITI Aayog.
Key Findings of the report
- The oil demand of India will overtake China by mid-2020. It will make India more vulnerable to supply disruption in the middle east. According to the report, oil demand of India will reach 6 million barrels per day by 2024. It was 4.4 million barrels per day in 2017.
- The report also said that India is the third largest consumer of oil after China and United States. Also, India imports 80% of its oil needs. Of this, 65% are from middle east through Strait of Hormuz.
- India is the fourth largest oil refiner in the world. The products mainly include diesel and gasoline. The report said that India’s plan of increasing its refining capacity to 8 million barrels per day by 2025 will make India an attractive market for investment in the refinery sector.
Strategic Petroleum Reserves
The agency releases strategic petroleum reserves of developed countries. It insisted that India has to expand its fuel reserves.
The Indian Strategic Petroleum Reserves Limited maintains emergency fuel store of 5.33 metric tonnoes. This will fulfil the demand of the country for 10 days. There are three such oil storage reserves located at PAdur, Mangalore and Vizag. In 2017-18 budget, it was announced that India is to build 2 more reserves at Chandikhole and Bikaner respectively.