Tuesday, May 22, 2012


Prices of Crude Oil in International Market
The Minister of State for Petroleum and Natural Gas Shri R.P.N. Singh informed the Rajya Sabha in a written reply today that the India imports about 83% of its requirement of crude oil. Price of crude oil in international market is determined by the interplay of market forces and India being a minor producer of crude oil has little impact in deciding the international crude prices. However, several measures have been taken to accelerate hydrocarbons exploration and production activities to meet the increasing demand of fuel, which include the following:-

(i) Carving out more areas of exploration for offer under various rounds of New Exploration Licensing Policy (NELP)/ Coal Bed Methane (CBM) Policy.

(ii) Application of Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR)/ Improved Oil Recovery (IOR) techniques for increasing recovery factor from existing fields.

(iii) Acquisition of exploration acreages and producing properties overseas to bring in equity oil.

Substitution of oil through use of alternate/ non-conventional sources of energy such as Bio-Diesel, Ethanol-blended Petrol.

He also said that the Under the Ethanol Blended Petrol (EBP) Programme, 5% of Ethanol is aimed to be blended with Petrol. At this level of blending in India and continuous growth in demand of petroleum products, it is not expected to have any impact on import and demand of crude oil in the International market. 

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