PM Modi meets global oil executives, urges to boost local production

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 over 3x, compared with 2020-21 when oil prices breached $85 per 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, including Igor Ivanovich Sechin, chairman and chief executive officer (CEO), Rosneft, Amin H Nasser, president and CEO, Saudi Aramco, Bernard Looney, CEO, BP, Olivier Le Peuch, CEO, Schlumberger, Mukesh Ambani, chairman and managing director, Reliance Industries, and Anil Agarwal, chairman, Vedanta, among others.

Daniel Yergin, vice-chairman, IHS Markit, was among the global oil industry experts present at the interaction.

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

He added that such reforms would continue with the goal to make India 'aatmanirbhar' in the oil and gas sector.

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

Modi also talked about the current and potential gas infrastructure development, including pipelines, city gas distribution, and liquefied natural gas regasification terminals.