Page 2 - Hardeep Puri

Govt making efforts to keep CNG prices under control: Oil minister Puri

The government is making constant efforts to bring the prices of compressed natural gas under control and has delinked Indian gas prices from four international hubs based in US, Canada, UK and Russia, and aligned them to the Indian crude basket, Oil minister Hardeep Puri informed the Rajya Sabha. Responding to supplementaries during the Question Hour, he said the government is encouraging consumption of compressed natural gas as it is relatively a cleaner fuel. "The government has ensured that while global prices were witnessing turbulence, massive increases and shortfall. Lockdown prices do not reflect reality prices, as during the lockdown crude prices came down to USD 19.56 per barrel and then shot up to USD 128 and USD 130 per barrel. "In April 2023, we rationalised the CNG prices and as a result while global prices shot up, domestic gas price was much lower, 83 per cent lower," the minister told the upper house. "It is our constant effort to provide more gas for domestic cook

Previous govts had no policy to handle energy requirements: Hardeep Puri

Urbanisation and energy requirements were neglected by previous governments as the focus was more on rural development with the vision of India living in villages, said Union minister Hardeep Singh Puri on Saturday. The central minister for housing and urban affairs was speaking at the first edition of Pune Public Policy Festival at Gokhale Institute of Politics and Economics. As people started migrating to urban areas from semi-urban pockets for job opportunities, the economic calculation started going wrong since the previous governments did not have an urban policy in place, a media release said quoting the minister. The cumulative spent on urban space by the central government was about Rs 1,57,000 crore between 2004 and 2014. After 2014, we realised the challenges in urbanisation and we saw an opportunity in it, he said. The current government has increased its urban spent by 11 times, Puri said. Today, we are spending about Rs 18 lakh crore for this purpose. This expenditure

Will keep diversifying crude oil supply, accelerate energy transition: Puri

Puri said that while OPEC+ nations have a right to decide on their energy production, supply cuts against such uncertainty, and resulting adverse impact on global prices, will dent long term demand

Tenders floated to procure e-buses under Central scheme: Hardeep Puri

The government has floated tenders for procuring electric buses under the PM-eBus Sewa scheme, Union Housing and Urban Affairs Ministry Hardeep Singh Puri said on Friday. Under the scheme, 10,000 electric buses will be provided to 169 cities under the public-private partnership model. Addressing a press conference, Puri said his ministry's officials were in touch with bus manufacturers. "Tenders have been floated to procure buses. The bidding will be completed by the end of January." According to the plan, people travelling in these buses can buy tickets through an automatic fare system while the operators will be paid based on the travel distance. The scheme, which will continue till 2037, will have an outlay of Rs 57,613 crore, of which Rs 20,000 crore will be provided by the Central government and the remaining will be borne by the states. The government said priority will be given to cities which do not have an organised bus service. Talking about his ministry's achievements

Red Sea region conflict: No major threat to India's fuel supplies

Petroleum Minister Hardeep Puri said there had been no disruption in supplies due to the attacks by Houthi rebels on oil tankers transiting the Suez

India welcomes return of Venezuelan oil to market: Union Minister Puri

India, the world's third largest oil consuming and importing nation, welcomes the return of Venezuelan oil to the market after sanctions on the Latin American nation were eased, Petroleum Minister Hardeep Singh Puri said. Without saying if India has resumed purchases from Venezuela, he said some refiners in the country have the capability to process heavy crude oil produced in the Latin American nation. India last imported Venezuelan crude in 2020. The US Treasury Department in October partially lifted sanctions on Venezuela's oil and gas sector. The partially lifted sanctions are through a new six-month license authorising transactions in the country's oil and gas sector. The license is to be renewed only if Venezuela can meet commitments leading to fair voting in the next year's presidential election. "We always buy from Venezuela. We have always bought stuff from Venezuela. It's when Venezuela came under sanctions that they were not able to supply," Puri told reporters here. He

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Rajasthan govt collected over Rs 35k cr tax on petrol, diesel, alleges Puri

The allegation comes as Rajasthan will undergo legislative assembly polls on November 25 while the counting of votes, along with four other poll-bound states, will be held on December 3.

Puri inaugurates ONGC-funded hospital in Assam built for Rs 483 crore

Petroleum Minister Hardeep Singh Puri on Saturday inaugurated a multi-speciality hospital built at a cost of Rs 483 crore in Assam's Sivasagar district. The Siu-Ka-Pha Hospital has been funded by the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) under its CSR commitments, and will be managed and operated by Aurangabad-based Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar Vaidyakiya Pratisthan (BAVP), a statement said. Speaking at the inauguration function, Puri said the hospital is expected to improve the healthcare services for the people of upper Assam as well as other parts of the Northeast. Reiterating the BJP-led NDA government's thrust on the development of the region, he said, "Driven by Prime Minister Narendra Modi's commitment to the Northeast, government and public enterprises like ONGC are committed to improving lives here. "Prioritising healthcare, ONGC's Siu-Ka-Pha Hospital, with its state of the art medical infrastructure, will bring in substantive enhancement in healthcare capacity of not only upper

India may buy Venezuelan crude oil if it's cheap, says Hardeep Singh Puri

India, the world's third biggest oil importer and consumer, ships over 80% of its oil needs from overseas and wants to cut its crude import bill

India to have world's second-largest metro system in a year: Hardeep Puri

He further highlighted that as the economy grows the urban space and the investment received in the sector will also grow

Israel-Hamas conflict: Don't expect disruption in supply lines, says Puri

Amid the ongoing Israel-Hamas conflict, Union Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas Hardeep Singh Puri on Friday said that there is no expectation of any disruption in supply lines for crude oil so far. Asked if the conflict can have an impact on oil supplies, Puri told reporters here, ".. so far, no expectation of supply lines being disrupted". "I am reasonably confident that both on issues related to availability and affordability that we can navigate forward. "I am confident that we will be able to manage and this for a variety of reasons. We have diversified our sources of supply. Earlier, we used to import from 27 countries, today we import from 39 countries," Puri said. Replying to a question, he said normally, the country consumes five million barrels per day. "Our imports from the Americas have increased. We buy USD 20 billion worth energy from them," he said in response to a question. Replying to a question if further reduction in fuel prices can be expected with festiv

Net-zero emissions target by 2070 little too long-term: Hardeep Puri

Union Minister Hardeep Singh Puri on Monday said achieving the net zero emissions target by 2070 is "little too long-term", indicating that the country may achieve the milestone ahead of the deadline. Under the net zero target, India will completely switch to renewables by 2070. Addressing the 26th Energy Technology Meet, Puri said: "Our net zero target by 2070 is a little too long-term." He is of the view that India is moving fast towards energy transition and stated that for GAIL, Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL) and others the energy transition target is 2035 to 2040. He explained that energy transition in India will first be from fossil-based to cleaner fuels and further to renewables. He also noted that global uncertainty is a dynamic driver for energy transition. On the Israel-Palestine conflict, he said such crises make the energy transition faster towards biofuel, renewables etc. Israel came under attack by Hamas militants on Saturday and since then, both side

Govt invites France's TotalEnergies to bid for oil exploration rights

India buys more than 84% of the oil it needs from overseas and is seeking to quickly develop its hydrocarbon reserves to reduce import dependence

Global Biofuel Alliance can turn India into export hub for SAF: Puri

India has enough feedstock, 1 percent blend will benefit 5 lakh farmers, Union Minister Hardeep Singh Puri told Business Standard

Dependence on cheap Russian crude oil will fall sharply: Hardeep Puri

India's consumption of Russian crude has soared since President Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine in February last year, ousting Saudi Arabia and Iraq from the top spots

India working on enhancing oil refining capability: Oil Minister Puri

India maintained "affordability" of petroleum products notwithstanding disruptions in the global energy markets and the hike in prices of petrol and diesel in the last two years has been marginal compared to several large economies and neighbouring nations, Oil Minister Hardeep Singh Puri said on Friday. In an interaction with a group of reporters, he also slammed the opposition for attacking the government on oil prices saying the states ruled by it are selling petrol and diesel at higher rates compared to those governed by the BJP which significantly cut the VAT on petroleum products to bring down the rates. The oil minister also said that India is in the process of expanding its oil refining capabilities. India is already the world's fourth largest refining hub and we are going to end up as the second largest refining place, Puri said while highlighting the Modi government's success in areas of trade and foreign policy. "PM Modi's governance is transforming our foreign policy, .

PM Modi's visit to France, UAE not just 'high on optics': Minister Puri

The BJP on Sunday termed Prime Minister Narendra Modi's recent visits to France and the UAE "successful" and said they were not just "high on optics" but also "high on substantive outcomes". Prime Minister Modi on Saturday returned after "successful" visits to France and the United Arab Emirates. "The prime minister's visits to France and UAE were successful and outcome positive," Union minister Hardeep Singh Puri told reporters at the BJP headquarters here. It has been India flavour and India story in many parts of the world since the prime minister embarked on an official visit to the US, Australia, Egypt, France, the UAE and Japan starting in May, Puri said. "Certainly, all of these visits have very positive outcomes in both bilateral and multilateral arena, he said. "In terms of both the sheer momentum of our exchanges with the outside world and also the kind of events which are planned for the coming weeks leading up to the G20 summit, I think it's India flavour and India sto

Govt has put in eco-system for development of Green Hydrogen: Hardeep Puri

Hardeep Puri said," We have a natural advantage in producing Green Hydrogen as we have an abundance of solar energy and investments in our power grid

India aims to expand its annual oil purchases from Iraq: Hardeep Puri

India aims to expand its annual oil purchases from Iraq from 1 bn barrels currently, Oil Minister Hardeep Puri said on Twitter after meeting his Iraqi counterpart Hayan Abdel-Ghani in New Delhi