India Set to Account for 35% of Global Energy Demand Growth in Coming Decades

India will drive up to 35% of global energy demand growth over the next 20 years, petroleum minister Hardeep Puri said at the Gastech conference that started on Tuesday in Houston.

“If you say that global demand is increasing by one percent, ours is increasing by three times that,” Puri said. “In the next two decades, 35% of the increase in global demand will come from India.”

At the same time, the official said that India wants to succeed with the energy transition as well. “We will manage and succeed…on the green transition,” Puri said. “That’s the part with which I am most satisfied.”

India is already one of the biggest drivers of energy demand growth and a top energy importer. Earlier this year, the U.S. Energy Information Administration forecast that the country’s industrial expansion and energy demand was going to drive a threefold increase in natural gas demand.

In 2022, India’s natural gas consumption amounted to 7.0 billion cubic feet per day, with over 70% of the demand coming from the industrial sector. By 2050, India’s natural gas consumption is set to more than triple to 23.2 Bcf/d, according to EIA’s estimates.

Oil demand on the subcontinent is also on the rise, which has prompted plans to boost refining capacity significantly. At the end of last year, the country’s petroleum ministry announced plans to expand refining capacity by 1.12 million bpd every year until 2028.

Total Indian refining capacity is expected to increase by 22% in five years from the current 254 million metric tons per year, which is equal to around 5.8 million bpd, according to these plans.

Yet India is also eager to take part in the energy transition. It already has ambitious targets, seeing 500 gigawatts of renewables capacity installed by 2030, compared to around 153 GW capacity now.

Earlier this month, Renewable Energy Minister Pralhad Joshi said that a number of banks had pledged a total of $386 billion in investment commitments to help India boost its renewable energy industry.

By Charles Kennedy for Oilprice.com

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