Union Minister Hardeep Puri, who is in the US to hold discussions on energy cooperation has lauded the partnership between the two countries stating that New Delhi draws great strength from this cooperation on sustainable energy.
Puri, the Union Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas, said that he will continue the bilateral discussions with US Secretary of Energy, Jennifer Granholm in Washington.
Speaking to ANI, Hardeep Puri said, “I’m here to continue the bilateral discussions with United States Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm. We have a US-India strategic Energy Cooperation partnership, we have annual meetings in that, under that programme there are several sub-groups which have been meeting.”
“These sub-groups are related to power and energy efficiency, renewable energy…in these groups, the concerned departments of the government of India, they meet their counterparts in the US govt and they put together the work done. The amount of work done has been considerable. Today we are cooperating in the context of the global biofuel; we are cooperating on the development of the green hydrogen,” he said.
The Union Minister also hailed the progress made by India in ethanol blending in the last 10 years. He said India achieved its target of 10 per cent blending before target and now aims to achieve 20 per cent blending by 2030.
In August, ethanol blending in petrol reached 15.8 per cent, and cumulative ethanol blending during November 2023 to August 2024 touched 13.6 per cent.
As of September 1, 2024, 16,059 PSU outlets out of 82,617 total PSU Retail Outlets are dispensing E20 Ethanol Blended MS.
The Union Minister put forward his expectations that several MoUs will be signed between India and the US during his visit.
“When PM Modi assumed responsibility in May 2014, we were only blending 1.5 per cent of our total fuel with bio-fuel. PM set a target of 10 per cent blending by November 2022, we were able to do that 5 months in advance. Then we had a target of 20 per cent blending by 2030, we are going to do it by October, 2025. US, Brazil, India and members of Global Biofuel Alliance. Recently, there was a conference in Delhi on green hydrogen and US was a partner country,” Puri said.
“We draw great strength from our cooperation with US on this cooperation on sustainable energy…I am going to Houston…number of MoUs will be signed there. In order to enhance our Exploration and Production sector, PM decided that out of our 3.5 million sq km of sedimentary basin, 1 million sq km, which was a no-go area has been made completely free, we are inviting collaboration from other global entities to come and prospect there,” the minister said.
Asked about whether India has been under any Western pressure to not purchase Russian oil, the former Indian envoy said that there hasn’t been any such suggestion. He also appreciated the oil trade with Russia, and said it has helped in keeping the global oil prices down.
“I have had the privilege of being associated with this ministry for close to three years. I am not aware of any point in my three years if anyone has even made that suggestion…Russia, before events of February 2022, produced 13 million barrels of crude in a day. Just imagine a situation…if that 13 million barrels had gone out of the equation…that 13 million barrels would have had to be accessed from somewhere else in that case, the prices would have shot up to USD 120-130 a barrel per day,” Puri said.
“In fact, today also Europe buys more oil and energy from Russia than we do in India. So, we have a situation that at least the stability and predictability scenario helps the market. So, no. At no stage has anybody said it…The suggestion that was made was there should be a price cap on which purchases should be made from the Russian Federation, that price cap is there…The oil prices has actually come down,” Puri said.
(With inputs from ANI)
