Fossil fuels will be a bad word in decades to come: Oil Minister Pradhan

He asked oil and gas firms to take a lead in clean fuel initiatives, urging them to focus more on using farm waste to energy projects

Taking a stand that the energy transition to cleaner sources is underway, Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said that fossil fuels will not have acceptability forever.

"Fossil fuels will be a bad word in the decades to come. There is a growing shift towards the clean energy ecosystem. India must look at this for being a global leader," Pradhan said while speaking at a ceremony to mark launch of compressed biogas projects.

He asked oil and gas companies to take a lead in these initiatives, suggesting they focus more on using farm waste to energy projects.

During the event, public sector undertaking (PSU) companies, IndianOil, Bharat Petroleum, Hindustan Petroleum, Indraprastha Gas, and GAIL (India) signed an agreement to boost the viability of compressed biogas projects in the country. Under the agreement, these PSU companies decided to buy compressed biogas (CBG) made from projects that were supported by the signing parties.

"This will allow a compress biogas manufacturer more options to sell its output since these companies have a wider reach and network when operating together," an IndianOil official said.

These CBG projects are being developed under the Sustainable Alternative Towards Affordable Transportation (SATAT) initiative of the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas. The SATAT initiatives envisage setting up of 5,000 CBG plants by 2023-24 with a production target of 15 million tonnes.