Modi chairs meeting to reduce India's dependency on oil imports

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday chaired a meeting to discuss a roadmap to reduce the country's dependency on import of oil and gas, sources said.

They said the Petroleum Ministry broached strategies at the meeting to achieve the objective of reducing the imports, including increasing production of crude oil and gas, promoting bio-fuels and renewables, energy efficiency and promoting conservation.

Home Minister Rajnath Singh, Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan and Environment Minister Anil Madhav Dave attended the meeting.

Others present included NITI (National Institution for Transforming India) Aayog Vice-Chairman Arvind Panagariya, NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant, Cabinet Secretary Pradeep Kumar Sinha and senior officials from Prime Minister's Office and ministries of petroleum, external affairs, home, finance and defence.

According to the data with the Oil Ministry's Petroleum Planning and Analysis Cell, India imported crude oil worth $63.97 billion in 2015-16, while product imports amounted to $9.95 billion. Exports of products, on the other hand, was of the tune of $27.06 billion.

Thus, the country was a net importer of crude and products worth $46.87 billion. In 2014-15, when the oil prices were still high, the country was net importer of crude and products worth $77.61 billion.

--IANS

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