New Delhi, Jul 18 (IANS): Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan and US Secretary of Energy Dan Brouillette on Friday co-chaired a virtual ministerial meeting of the US-India Strategic Energy Partnership (SEP) to review progress, highlight major accomplishments, and prioritise new areas for cooperation.

A statement from the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas said that in the midst of a global pandemic with an enormous human toll that is also affecting energy demand, global energy markets, and sustainable energy growth, the US-India Comprehensive Global Strategic Partnership has never been more vital.

Established in April 2018 at the direction of President Donald Trump and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in recognition of the strategic importance of energy to the US-India bilateral relationship, the SEP builds upon the long standing energy partnership and sets the stage for meaningful engagements through robust government-to-government cooperation and industry engagement, it said.

In the meeting on Friday, new areas of research on transformational power generation based on supercritical CO2 power cycles and advanced coal technologies for power generation and hydrogen production, including carbon capture, utilisation, and storage (CCUS) were discussed.

The US briefed about continued bilateral R&D engagement on advanced civil nuclear energy technologies through the US-India Civil Nuclear Energy Working Group.

Both sides announced a number of achievements and priorities for new work under the SEP including enhancing energy security, harnessing innovation, and modernising the power system.