SME Times News Bureau | 25 Feb, 2020
Minister of Petroleum & Natural Gas Dharmendra Pradhan
has described the Summit level meeting between the Prime Minister Narendra Modi
and the US President Mr Donald Trump as a momentous occasion for India-US
bilateral relations.
Speaking at an event here today, he said that both the
leaders have once again emphasized the importance of further strengthening the
energy pillar of the bilateral strategic partnership.
The event "India-US Business Story: Opportunity,
Innovation, Entrepreneurship" was jointly organized by CII, USIBC, Ananta
Centre and Indiaspora with a focus on energy cooperation between India and US.
Pradhan said that the high importance attached to
the energy component of the bilateral engagement is rather evident from
positive developments during the last three years under the India-US strategic
energy partnership.
He said "US emerging as the 6th largest
source for crude oil imports, is a significant development. India is also now
the 4th largest export destination for US crude. Our LNG imports from US are
also increasing progressively ever since the imports started in March 2018.
India is now the 5th largest destination of US exports of LNG."
The Minister said that India’s bilateral
hydrocarbon trade has increased exponentially during the last three years, and
it touched US $7.7 billion mark last year, accounting for 11% of total two-way
trade. These developments are reflective of a new and emerging dynamic between
the two countries.
"Both Secretary Dan Brouillette and I have
agreed that there is a need now to develop industry-level engagements for
technology infusions as well as investment partnerships in the energy sector. Yesterday,
Secretary Brouillette and I reviewed the ongoing strategic energy
partnership. We are planning the next Ministerial meeting of the
Strategic Energy Partnership in April this year for deepening engagements at
government and industry channels.", he added.
Pradhan said that our vision of becoming a
gas-based economy is yet another area of close collaboration between India and
US.
In this connection, the India-US Gas Task Force
constituted in 2018 under the Strategic energy Partnership is doing pioneering
work. The Task Force is providing innovative policy recommendations to expedite
development of gas-based economy in India.
On the issue of IOCL and ExxonMobil signing a
Letter of Cooperation (LoC) for increasing access of LNG in Indian gas market, Pradhan
said that this is an initiative incubated under the India-US Gas Task Force.
He said that Prime Minister Modi has envisioned
India to become a US$ 5 trillion economy by 2024. Energy sector will be a key
catalyst to achieve this target.
Pradhan said that India-US collaboration in
development of clean energy is progressing well. It needs to be aligned to
support India’s ambitious renewable and clean energy targets by supporting research and deployment of clean energy
technologies. There is also an opportunity for massive infusion of capital in
such innovative ventures.
He said "With
India emerging as one of the fastest growing energy markets, we look forward to
greater infusion of US technology, innovation and capital in India’s upstream,
midstream and downstream sectors. "