UAE, INDIA CLEAN ENERGY PARTNERSHIP

WAM - ABU DHABI, 1st November, 2022 -- High global oil prices have prompted India to redouble its efforts to develop green energy sources, a top Indian official told the Emirates News Agency (WAM), adding that India wants to enhance cooperation with the UAE and the rest of the world in this domain, along with the traditional energy sector.

In India, there is an acceleration in deployment of green energy in all areas; “that’s the unintended consequences of higher prices [of oil], we are redoubling our efforts to go into green energy,” said Hardeep Singh Puri, Indian Minister for Housing and Urban Affairs, and Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas, said on Monday.

Optimistic note on future energy

In an exclusive interview with WAM at the Abu Dhabi International Petroleum Exhibition and Conference 2022 (ADIPEC), Puri said India’s cooperation with the UAE and the rest of the world in green energy will give an optimistic note on future energy scenario.

“It is not just traditional fossil fuels that we have to cooperate on. We have to enhance and accelerate our cooperation in solar, wind, biofuels, and green hydrogen, along with the traditional energy sources,” he emphasised.

However, Puri pointed out, meeting the increasing global energy demand from green energy sources is challenging for the international community for several reasons.

“Global oil consumption, which is about 99 or 100 million barrels a day is going to grow [further]. It is growing at one percent plus [per annum] while India’s consumption is growing at three percent,” the minister noted.

Global challenges

Although the overall energy requirement will be higher in the coming months and years, “we are hoping that the [growing] demand will be met increasingly from other greener sources also. And therefore, in India, we made very good headway [in green energy],” he said.

There have been billions of dollars of investment into the Indian electric vehicles segment, into storage, into batteries, and related areas, the minister said. Likewise, there has been progress in biofuels, including compressed biogas, and green hydrogen. “So, in every area of green energy, we are dealing with it in a mission mode.”

Largest oil supplier to India keeps changing

The sources of oil imports to India are constantly changing due several factors such as availability of crude, long- term contracts, currency exchange rate and discounts etc., the minister explained, clarifying that oil purchases are conducted by companies, not by the government.

The UAE and Saudi Arabia have been among the largest supplier for many years, he pointed out. Then India was importing only 0.2 percent of its total oil requirements from Russia until 31st March this year, but now Russia has emerged as a large supplier of crude to India. India is buying US$20 billion worth oil from the United States annually and US$48 billion oil from OPEC+, which constitute 14 percent of their output, Puri explained.

“Today Iraq is number one and Russia is number two oil supplier to India. Will that remain so? I don’t know,” he said.

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