New Delhi, Aug 13 (IANS): India, the world’s fourth largest refiner, is confidently journeying towards energy self-sufficiency under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Petroleum Minister Hardeep Singh Puri said on Tuesday.

The Minister said that with the country’s energy demand expected to double by 2050, “we continue to focus on expansion of our existing energy infrastructure”.

Towards this mission, the Ministry has also notified the allocation of gas produced from new wells or well interventions from nominated fields of ONGC and Oil India Limited at 20 per cent premium (total 12 per cent of Indian Crude basket price for new gas) over the administered price mechanism (APM) price fixed at 10 per cent of the Indian Crude basket price, as announced by the Petroleum Planning and Analysis Cell (PPAC) on monthly basis.

According to Minister Puri, this will make the new gas development projects viable and help companies augment the production of natural gas from nominated fields in high risk and capital-intensive challenging areas that require a higher amount of capital and technology for development.

Towards its goal of self-reliance in the field of energy, the country has achieved record gas production.

India achieved 36.43 billion cubic feet (BCM) gas production in FY24, from 28.7 BCM in FY21. The country is expected to reach 45.3 BCM gas production by FY26, according to Minister Puri.

The focus of the Oil Ministry under the BJP-led NDA government is to boost oil and gas exploration, green hydrogen and increase gas consumption in the country.

Meanwhile, the consumption of natural gas in India went up 7.1 per cent in June to 5,594 million metric standard cubic metres (MMSCM), this year.

According to the government, the gas companies have been expanding their network to meet the rising demand for the green fuel. Consumption of petroleum products such as petrol, diesel and jet fuel went up by 2.6 per cent in June to 20 million metric tonnes (MMT).