BETUL: Union Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas Hardeep Singh Puri on Wednesday said that India’s recent reforms in the sector including diversification of sources of imports, and changes in gas pricing mechanism had ensure that prices of petrol and diesel in India declined while the global prices were shooting up.
Puri participated in a ministerial panel titled ‘‘Ensuring energy security for nations and industry in a VUCA world” at India Energy Week 2024 along with Saad Sherida Al Kaabi, Energy Affairs, Cabinet Minister, Qatar, Vickram Bharat, Minister of Natural Resources Republic of Guyana, and Secretary General OPEC, Haitham Al Ghais. VUCA stands for volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity. It describes the situation of constant, unpredictable change that is now the norm in certain industries and areas of the business world.
Referring to the global energy production and supply situation, Puri said, “The challenge is to make sure transition is done in an orderly manner. That we have access to traditional fuel and making predictable transition to cleaner fuel. Balanced and realistic dialogue is needed and not vilification of fossil fuel.”
Observing that even as energy transition was vital, Secretary General OPEC, Haitham Al Ghais said, “Energy transition can have multiple pathways. This is how we should look at energy transition. At OPEC we continue to invest, and we need hundreds of billions of investment over the next 20 years.”
Al Ghais also emphasised the need for investment in fossil fuel production. “We need to invest as demand is likely to continue to grow,” he added.
Sherida Al Kaabi, Minister of State for Energy Affairs, Qatar said that renewable sources of energy do not completely solve the global energy needs.
“It is not responsible to say we do not use fossil fuel. It is like humanity shooting itself in the foot,” he added.
Vickram Bharat, Minister of Natural Resources, Republic of Guyana said that the new hydrocarbon found offshore Guyana was a step towards prosperity.
“The new hydrocarbon find offshore Guyana has made the world notice us. Our policy is very simple. Get hydrocarbons out of the ground as fast as possible and use that to build traditional sectors. The window on oil is closing, not so much for gas,” he noted.
