India has remained neutral in the West’s standoff with Russia following the invasion of Ukraine, seeing it as an opportunity to buy discounted Russian barrels.

Kudankulam, about 100 kilometres from the port city of Tuticorin in the state of Tamil Nadu at the southern tip of India, is already home to two operating Russian-VVER 1000 pressurised water reactors: Kudankulam 1 has been in commercial operation since 2014 and Kudankulam 2 since 2017.

Несмотря на санкции со стороны недружественных стран, за последние два года Россия расширила географию поставок и обрела новые партнёрские связи, переориентировав поставки нефти, газа и угля на 85% в сторону стран АТР.

"India currently ranks as the world's third-largest energy consumer, oil consumer, and liquefied petroleum gas consumer. Additionally, it stands as the fourth largest importer of liquefied natural gas, refiner, and automobile market globally. Presently, India is witnessing record-breaking sales in both two-wheelers and four-wheelers, alongside a growing demand for electric vehicles," Modi added.

Asian LNG re-exports have continued to outmatch reexports from Europe so far in 2024, maintaining Asia's stronger reexport trend that emerged in 2023,

Oil imports from Russia, negligible before Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, climbed steadily through 2022 and the first half of last year as India saw an opportunity to procure discounted barrels. Russia overtook traditional suppliers like Iraq and Saudi Arabia.

India is already exploring coal gasification, for which it is setting aside 85 billion rupees ($1 billion) in subsidies to help get projects off the ground. The early-stage technology, which turns coal into gas to generate electricity, results in marginally lower emissions compared to conventional coal firing.

India’s refining capacity is projected to increase by 56 million tons by 2028, Junior Oil Minister Rameswar Teli said last month, without elaborating. That equates to an overall capacity boost of 22%, or 1.12 million barrels a day.

India recorded a peak electricity demand of 243 gigawatts last year, exceeding the power ministry’s projections of 229 gigawatts and prompting the ministry to push for more coal power. Maximum demand is expected to jump to 366 gigawatts by 2032.

In November, days ahead of the UN Climate Change Conference in Dubai, India's power minister RK Singh said the country would need to add 80 GW of new thermal capacity by 2031-2032 to meet demand.

In the next four months, India plans to add nearly 3 gigawatts of coal-fired generation, while the following fiscal year, starting from April 1, 2025, will see it add 14 gigawatts, or its highest level in eight years.

India, the world's third biggest oil importer and consumer, ships over 80% of its oil needs from overseas and wants to cut its crude import bill.

«Китай и Индия – стратегические партнёры России в части выстраивания нового, справедливого энергорынка и торговой инфраструктуры. Реализуются совместные инвестиционные проекты на территориях обеих стран. Прорабатываются или уже имеются планы по расширению трубопроводных мощностей по доставке нефти и газа из России в Китай», – заявил Николай Шульгинов.

Puri has long called for OPEC and its allies led by Russia, known as OPEC+, to consider how their policies affect oil-consuming countries.

Transportation in India contributes 14% of CO2 emissions (ICCT 2022), with 90% of energy used by road transport (Hagemann et al., 2020) and 50% of oil demand (IEA 2021). Amidst economic growth, addressing energy use and decarbonization is vital.