New Delhi: As the US-Israel and Iran war adversely impacting the crude oil and energy supplies, ONGC Chairman and CEO Arun Kumar Singh said on Friday advocated
for domestic production, saying India should be cautious about relying on traditional supply assumptions. Notably, New Delhi heavily relied on the Middle East countries. Nearly 50 per cent of the total crude requirement, 30 per cent of its gas and 85-90 per cent of LPG was purchased from the particular region.
The ONGC head said India should focus on investing in building strategic storages as an insurance against price and supply disruptions.
ONGC’s Call for Energy Self-Reliance
The West Asia conflict has shut the Strait of Hormuz that was used by the Gulf countries, such as Qatar, Bahrain, Saudia Arabia and others to export crude oil (raw material for making petrol and diesel), natural gas (used to make fertilizer, generate electricity, turn into CNG to power automobiles and piped to household kitchens for cooking) and cooking gas LPG.
Iran’s closure of Hormuz led to a huge energy crisis as several countries, including India got hit as crude and gas imports were hit.
“Thinking that the Middle East is nearest to us and therefore all their resources (can be accessed easily), we should take it with a pinch of salt,” Singh said while speaking at the Energy Security conclave organised by oil regulator PNGRB.
India should increase crude, gas strategic storage
The ONGC chief warned that a global order is shifting and the rising geopolitical tensions are undermining long-held assumptions about energy security.
“A paradigm shift has happened. If the world gets more and more de-globalised, we will have more and more problems.” Singh said. He warned that India’s dependency on other countries makes it vulnerable in an increasingly fragmented world.
“For the next 30-40 years… if you have multiple (powers), then you have everyday… war of supremacy,” he said.
“We have been doing it very intensely except for deep water,” he said. The ONGC chief aggressively advocated for increasing output is an “existential necessity”.
Singh called for aggressive pursue of domestic exploration and building resilience to deter the massive imports of fuel.
“We should chase wherever oil or gas is in our country at any cost, because in a crisis nobody (will help),” he said, while calling for expanding the storage capacity.
“We must now address this storage… whatever it takes,” Singh said.
The ONGC chief said despite global disruptions, India had managed the situation effectively.
