Russia and India in December signed new energy cooperation agreements, including a contract for Rosneft to ship almost 15 million barrels of crude to India in 2022, according to government and company statements.

India also plans to simplify the authorisation process for green hydrogen production (including a single portal for all clearances and land provision) and to provide federal financial support to develop electrolysers.

"In the current scenario, [the] demand for oil has outpaced production growth as economies slowly rebound from the worst of the pandemic, leaving the market with a small buffer to mitigate an oil supply shock," Singh said.

The partnership between the two countries has led to the joint work on several agreements and Memorandum of Understanding in several areas, including: The Economy, Climate Change and Houbara Conservation, Industries and Advanced Technologies, Low Carbon Hydrogen Developments and Investments, Food Security, Financial Services, and Issuance of India-UAE Joint Stamps.

India's coal demand stood at 905.88 million mt in 2020-21, with domestic supply contributing 690.89 million mt and imports at 214.99 million mt, the ministry data showed.

Over January-November, India's crude imports rose 5.8% year on year to 191.8 million mt, or 4.2 million b/d.

Kudankulam is a long-term strategic project between India and Russia that began with an intergovernmental agreement in 1988.

India's present nuclear power capacity of 6780 MWe is planned to be increased to 22,480 MWe by 2031.

In December 2019, the SECI selected Azure Power to develop 2 GW of solar power projects of 500 MW each across India between 2022 and 2025.

India aims to reach a non-fossil energy capacity of 500 GW by 2030.