India to step up oil exploration
Will double oil and gas exploration acreage in northeast part of the country: Hardeep Puri
Rosneft believes Indian market has long-term potential
Abu Dhabi: India will have massive additional areas for oil exploration and production by 2025, said Hardeep Singh Puri, Union Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas, and Housing and Urban Affairs, at an event here.
"As far as the government of India is concerned, we are going to step on the accelerator in terms of exploration and production in a very big way," Puri said after opening the India pavilion at the Abu Dhabi International Petroleum Exhibition and Conference (ADIPEC) on Monday.
India will double its oil and gas exploration acreage in the northeast part of the country. "In the northeast, we will increase the area under E and P (exploration and production) from 30,000 square km to 60,000 square km," he said. The minister said that India aims to expand its gas pipeline network to 34,000 km.
"This means $60 billion investment in gas pipeline infrastructure alone, increasing the refining capacity from 250 million metric tonnes to 400 million metric tonnes per annum by 2030 and gas mix from 6 per cent to 15 per cent," he said.