India Energy Week (IEW) 2024 opens in Goa next week, and ahead of the event, Hardeep Singh Puri, Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas and Minister of Housing and Urban Affairs, Government of India, described the global platform as a “golden opportunity” for “further development and growth”.
Sustainable energy solutions to combat climate change, the number one crisis facing the world, will take centre-stage at IEW 2024, as outlined in the minister’s address at a media conference yesterday.
He said, “India Energy Week… is a golden opportunity for all these related developments on the energy front to be showcased and provided a platform for further development and growth.”
Referring to the importance accorded to clean and, therefore, sustainable energy, the minister added, “[IEW] will also feature increased focus across the entire energy value chain, including three sessions on biofuels, three sessions on hydrogen, and two sessions on CCUS (carbon capture, utilisation, and storage).”
In an earlier media conference related to the event, Rajeev Jain, spokesperson, Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, told state broadcaster DD News (Doordarshan) that IEW 2023, which had been held in Bengaluru, had been “a huge success” and that IEW 2024 was set to build on that.
He said that this year, “We have global companies, oil companies who will be participating in IEW 2024…. This conference is basically about dialogues, conversations between global oil companies and those in India.”
Such interactions would result in greater collaboration and co-operation, said Jain, ultimately strengthening India’s position as “a global powerhouse”.
DD News reported that energy ministers from 17 countries would participate in IEW 2024.
At yesterday’s conference, Puri said that aside from the 900-plus exhibitors at IEW 2024, there would be 6 country pavilions:
- United States
- United Kingdom
- Canada
- Russia
- Germany
- The Netherlands
There would also be a “Make in India” pavilion at India Energy Week 2024, with “more than 300 exhibitors to showcase innovative [energy] solutions”, developed by Indian MSMEs (micro, small, and medium enterprises), said the minister.
ONGC has two roles: exploration and transition
Speaking at an event late last year to promote IEW 2024, the head of the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Limited (ONGC), the giant PSU (public sector undertaking) under the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, said that it had two main roles: exploration and transition.
Arun Kumar Singh, Chairman and CEO, ONGC, said that India’s current per capita primary energy consumption was one-third of the global average, which meant that there was scope for this consumption to grow three times.
He said that the growth trajectory of the Indian economy indicated that the “primary energy consumption will remain very strong”.
Primary energy refers to the raw fuel found in nature, such as oil and gas, as opposed to secondary energy sources, such as electricity generated through human engineering.
“We have to be very aggressive in exploration and production in conventional areas,” he said. “The second part which ONGC has to do very strongly is transition.”
Singh elaborated, “Transition for ONGC means all three: solar, wind, hydrogen.”
The CEO said that “a good part” of the corporation’s resources would go into renewable energy, even though “the majority” of the resources would go into oil and gas.