PM Modi meets global oil and gas CEOs; focus on increasing domestic output

India wants to increase domestic oil and gas production after it has undertaken reforms in the sector to attract investment. This comes at a time when the country’s crude oil import bill has zoomed to over three times compared to the last financial year as oil prices cross $85 a barrel.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday met around 30 senior executives from global oil majors and urged them to boost India’s local production.

An official statement said the interaction was attended by industry leaders from across the world, including Igor Sechin, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Rosneft, Amin Nasser, President and CEO, Saudi Aramco, and Bernard Looney, CEO, bp. Olivier Le Peuch, CEO, Schlumberger, Mukesh Ambani, Chairman, and Managing Director, Reliance Industries, and Anil Agarwal, Chairman, Vedanta, among others were also in attendance.

Daniel Yergin, Vice Chairman, IHS Markit was among the global oil industry experts that were present during the interaction.

Modi listed the upstream oil and gas reforms undertaken in the last seven years during this interaction. An official statement said these included the ones in exploration and licensing policy, gas marketing, policies on coal bed methane, coal gasification, and the recent reform in Indian Gas Exchange.

He added that such reforms will continue with the goal to make India ‘Aatmanirbhar in the oil & gas sector’.

“Talking about the oil sector, he said that the focus has shifted from ‘revenue’ to ‘production’ maximization. He also spoke about the need to enhance storage facilities for crude oil. He further talked about the rapidly growing natural gas demand in the country,” the statement said.

PM Modi talked about the current and potential gas infrastructure development including pipelines, city gas distribution, and LNG regasification terminals, the statement added.

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