India’s import bill for petroleum and natural gas has witnessed an increase of 39.6 percent in the first half of 2022-23 compared to 2016-17, Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas Rameshwar Teli told the Indian Parliament on Thursday.
The minister likewise informed that import costs of petroleum products have risen in the current financial year 2022-23 owing to strong domestic demand, a global hike in crude prices as well as a strong exchange rate.
Crude prices hit a record $120 per barrel in May this year in the wake of coordinated efforts by western governments to phase out Russian energy products from the global supply chain owing to Moscow’s special military operation in Ukraine.
For its part, India has cushioned the blow of high energy prices by ramping up its crude purchases from Moscow, which reportedly offers New Delhi a discount.
In a separate statement on Thursday, India’s Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas Hardeep Singh Puri told the parliament that the retail prices of petrol and diesel in India between November 2020 and November 2022 have risen by 18.95 percent and 26.95 percent, respectively.
Puri highlighted that, in percentage terms, the increase in petrol and diesel prices in India is far less than hikes in other countries such as the US, Canada, Spain and the UK. Retail fuel prices have risen between 40 and 180 percent in those countries cited by Puri.
He said that in order to further “insulate” the Indian consumer from high global prices, New Delhi reduced federal excise duty on both petroleum products in November 2021 and May 2022.
India’s Natural Gas Imports
Sharing data for natural gas imports from 2014-15 to April-October 2022, Teli said that consumption during the first half of the ongoing financial year was 16,876 million metric standard cubic meters (mmscm) imported at the cost of $6.6 billion.
India bought 26,785 mmscm of natural gas at $13.3 billion in the financial year 2021-22, he said.
The MoS further said that New Delhi has been working on a strategy to reduce its reliance on oil imports.
He listed several policy initiatives adopted by the government to reduce petroleum imports, including refinery improvements, as well as the Discovered Small Field policy and Hydrocarbon Exploration and Licensing policy.
The minister also said that a federal committee was set up by the government in 2014 to "prepare a roadmap to reduce the dependency on imports in energy by 10 percent by 2021-22."
The committee recommended a five-pronged strategy to reduce oil dependency, including raising domestic production, promoting energy efficiency and conservation measures, promoting demand substitution, capitalizing untapped potential in biofuels and other alternate fuels/ renewable, and implementing measures for refinery process improvements.