New Delhi: Union Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Hardeep Singh Puri said on Friday that Russia has become a major supplier of crude oil to India. Addressing the press conference for India Energy Week 2023, Puri said, “Earlier we were buying crude oil from 29 countries, now we have 39 countries in our list. We are ready to buy from anywhere.” ANI.
He further said, “We used to buy a very limited amount of oil from Russia to the extent of 0.2 per cent till March 31, 2020, now Russia has become a major supplier along with UAE, Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Kuwait.” Puri also said that Brazil and the US are interested in a biofuel alliance. Puri said, “I can see it starting to open up. Brazil has always wanted biofuels and they are a leader in production.”
“I want to point out that one of our objectives for the presidency of the G20 is that we want to establish an international biofuels alliance”, he said. Speaking on investment in exploration by global companies, Puri said, “Some other steps have been taken like freeing up 1 million out of 3.5 million square kilometers of sedimentary basin for exploration. There is interest from all major companies coming to India.” For. All the major players in the world like Exxon Mobil, Shell, BP Chevron and Total are all coming to cooperate in oil exploration.”
“We would welcome it because there are areas like deep sea and other areas where we can use collaboration. We will encourage them. We will invite all major sectors of the energy ecosystem to invest in the energy sector,” he said. The Union minister said, “The government is working on green hydrogen and I see it in the coming times, not only will you see a spurt in the demand for green hydrogen, but the demand is already coming from outside the country.”
“There are Indian companies that are already in commercial contractual relationships with foreign entities for the supply of green ammonia,” he added. , Singapore and other places, he added.
(With ANI inputs)
