India outlines bold energy mission of growth and $5 billion investment opportunities
The largest India Energy Week edition opened today with powerful messages to the rest of the world on its economic growth, and plans to fulfil rising energy demand at home and abroad.
In a video speech, Honourable Shri Narendra Modi, Prime Minister of India, told the inauguration ceremony that India was “a land of immense opportunities for the energy sector”, totalling $500 billion in investment potential. The Indian leader also hailed a freshly-signed significant free-trade agreement with the European Union, representing about 25% of global GDP, as a “remarkable example of coordination between two of the world’s largest economies…today India is working extensively on global partnerships in every sector.”
Prime Minister Modi underlined India as “the world’s fastest growing economy, which means the demand for energy products in the country is continuously rising”. He said the country also offers “excellent opportunities to meet global demand”, being among the top five exporters of petroleum products, with export coverage extending to more than 150 countries.
“This capacity of India will be of great benefit to all,” he said to a packed main hall in Prithvi Convention Centre, itself a symbolic landmark of India’s rapid progress. PM Modi also remarked there were vast investment opportunities across different areas of the value chain.
He said India was “riding on the Reforms Express, rapidly implementing reforms in every sector…to create a transparent and investor-friendly environment for global collaborations”. This includes significantly opening up exploration; by the end of the decade it aims to raise investments in the oil and gas sector to $100 billion with a target of expanding the scope of exploration to 1 million square kilometres.
He added, “There is another characteristic of India that makes investment in the energy sector very profitable. We are the second largest in the world in terms of refining capacity. Soon we will be number one. Continuous efforts are being made to increase this to over 300 million TPA.”
LNG transportation
Describing India’s large-scale efforts in LNG transportation, he underlined numerous investment opportunities created in constructing LNG terminals at Indian ports, and regasification projects, as it works on the entire LNG value chain to reach a target of meeting 15% of energy demand.
Underlining that India’s energy sector lay at the centre of the nation’s economic aspirations, he effectively highlighted that India was open for business. “India is now moving beyond energy security and working towards the mission of energy independence. Friends, our energy sector is at the heart of our aspirations…it offers investment opportunities worth $500 billion.”
These messages were underlined by His Excellency Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas in India, Shri Hardeep Singh Puri, who highlighted the extreme growth of India Energy Week and said all stakeholders in the energy system could “come together and in a reasonable, predictable way, and chart their way through the challenges” posed by “global turmoil affecting a large number of sectors”.
“When we last met in New Delhi, the global energy system was already facing pressure from geopolitical shifts and structural change. Today, these pressures have, one could say, intensified and the energy order continues to evolve in complex ways.”
“The history of energy has never been about replacement alone. It has been about addition. New sources have consistently complemented existing ones, allowing systems to expand and adapt. This remains the defining reality of the global energy transition.”
Power of partnerships
His Excellency Dr. Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber, UAE Minister of Industry and Advanced Technology and ADNOC Managing Director and Group CEO, underlined the power of partnerships as he spotlighted the potent relationship between his country and India.
“As I look around, the sheer size of this event reflects the simple fact that India increasingly sits at the centre of global energy growth,” he said.
During a Ministerial Panel following the opening ceremony, however, H.E. Hardeep Puri and other panelists examined anticipated and less predictable forces shaping global energy markets. Titled “Charting a course through uncertainty: securing affordable, accessible and sustainable energy in a turbulent world”, the discussion touched on geopolitics including use of tariffs, critical minerals, and protectionism, prompting industry leaders to react and adapt.
His Excellency Jassim Al Shirawi, Secretary General of the International Energy Forum (IEF), spoke of “fragmentation and polarisation” as he said: “Energy is the engine for economic development and social progress. At the moment, energy security is taking more attention and becoming top of the agenda.”
The Honourable Tim Hodgson, Canada’s Minister of Energy and Natural Resources, added, “What is happening in the world today is not a gradual economic transition, it is a rupture in the way the global trading system works, the rules-based order that we all have been building our economy around, one that was based on multilateralism, one that was based on free trade.”
