India has also shifted from production-sharing to a revenue-sharing model for oil and gas contracts and opened up previously restricted sedimentary basins to boost domestic energy exploration, Puri said.
These are edited excerpts of the interview.Q: First of all, I’m very curious to know what really conspired at the PM Energy Roundtable yesterday in Delhi.
A: The PM has been meeting global CEOs for many years. In fact, whilst this is the fourth edition of the IEW, the roundtable was the ninth edition. So, he meets the global CEOs. And a unique feature of the roundtable is that these are captains of industry, very big companies, they are the majors from across the world. They get an opportunity to hear from the chief executive, the Honourable Prime Minister, directly what his vision is.
In this case, he had set out the vision, the opportunity, in his inaugural address to the IEW the previous day, where he talked about an overall $500 billion opportunity in the sector, $100 billion in E&P. But also, what characterises this forum is the frank talk that takes place.
And the point that was made from our side was that what the CEOs say is not only registered, but it resonates in the decision-making process. Let me give you an example. Many years ago, I’ve only been here with this portfolio for five years, but look at what we’ve done.
A lot of our collaborators said we didn’t need production-sharing agreements; we needed revenue-sharing agreements. Some people said, no production. But we started moving after the decade of 2006 to 2016, when nothing happened.
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We went from production to revenue sharing. Most importantly, a point that one of our participants made yesterday was that most of the big discoveries have been made offshore, in deep water.
And if you look at our sedimentary basin, 3.5 million square kilometres, one point plus was not even open. It was a no-go area. So, we opened that up.
That again comes when the Prime Minister is not only hands-on, he’s totally committed, and he monitors this on a day-to-day basis.
Yesterday, a lot of useful ideas came. But first of all, the diverse geography—look at where the CEOs were from.
Q: This is also a time where there is so much global uncertainty happening. Is that being addressed as well? Latest being us now talking about a potential threat on attacking Iran.
A: Uncertainty is there. It’s a given, and I don’t think anyone who’s participating in any discussion on any forum is going to try and downplay that uncertainty.
There was uncertainty around the Red Sea, Suez, the Straits of Hormuz earlier. It’s been one thing leading to another. The new uncertainties that you are talking about – let me tell you, I believe—and I have held this view for a long time—that uncertainty, which is also bordering on turmoil, gives us an opportunity. And out of that uncertainty and the turmoil, we have to chart a way forward.
And I must say, with the Honourable Prime Minister’s decisive leadership and his farsightedness, we have charted a way forward.
We have diversified the sources of supply from 27 countries to 41 countries. Countries with which we were talking fringe, contentious issues—Canada has come. We are now into a major supply relationship.
I don’t know whether you agree with those characterisations, but for instance, the Canadian minister says if one country has eight years of reserves – I think he meant crude – he has 100 years of crude.
But the fact is another country in that region has huge amounts of gas. We have now started buying cargoes from all over.
More and more energy is coming on the market. But you’re absolutely right, availability and supply lines do get affected by uncertainty.
But because of the overall abundant supply potential and availability, despite cutbacks by OPEC+, which was 5 million barrels, prices haven’t shot up.
Yes, if you wake up in the morning and hear of some incident or turmoil somewhere, prices may go up two or three dollars, but the price is very much within $60–65 per barrel.
And I can tell you, not only the interaction held by the Honourable Prime Minister with the global CEOs, the discussions here at IEW, the contracts which have been negotiated, the fact that the President of the UAE came – we are looking at a more intensified and comprehensive relationship.
The visit of the Canadian Prime Minister has been announced. And in between all that, an EU-India FTA.
Q: Mother of all deals, as it has been called.
A: I didn’t use the term, but the EU side used it, and we are using it happily now.
People in all trade deals evaluate whether you entered into an arrangement with the other person who got the better of it. I don’t think that’s the view I take.
But I come back to the basics. The preamble of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade talks about mutually beneficial trade arrangements, which help increase the standard of living of our people.
So today, energy clearly is the lifeline of an economy. In India’s case, it ensures availability for all our population, whether it’s clean cooking gas or fuel for vehicles – no disruption there.
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It has to be affordable. We managed to do that. And it has to be sustainable. The sustainability story is very good.
So, I think overall, thanks to timely efforts—it’s very easy to criticise. I don’t want to get into why something doesn’t happen between trading partners. I rejoice in the fact that it’s happened, and I rejoice in the fact that more such arrangements will come into being.Hopefully, we’ll get a trade deal with another large economy. We already have arrangements with the UAE, EFTA, and now the EU-27.
So, trade is fundamental, and energy is not only vital but a driving force in that process.
Q: In the last two or three days at India Energy Week, there have been many narratives—energy security, energy transition, energy transformation, energy replacement.
A: They all mean the same thing. Security energy is a must. If you don’t have energy, you can’t live. It’s like a bicycle – you are peddling, you are going forward. You need energy for that, bicycle doesn’t move on its own.
Energy concepts have changed. Earlier, it was steam and pistons. Then you were completely fixated on fossil fuels. Someone once said crude would peak by 2000. By peak, it means that after 2000, instead of increasing, it will go down.
And then bright academics, some of my best friends from the world of academia and multilateral diplomacy, said we must now transition. You have to transition. But any transition you want to do, you want to transit, you have to have a starting point. In order to move from the starting point, you still need energy.
I made a point yesterday, in one of our interventions, that if all investment in traditional energy stops now, we will lose the value of Brazil and another large country.
So even in order to transit, you have to continue to maintain. If you dig a well today and it’s at optimum production next year, it will decline. So, you have to keep investing, but your energy demands are going up.
All these data centres, all the air conditioning. Somebody made an estimate during the opening ceremony—5 billion air conditioners, one air conditioner every second. It requires energy.
Now, the alternative energy in India has done brilliantly. From 1.4% of biofuel mix in 2014, when Modi ji assumed responsibility for governance, it is now 20%. But the remarkable thing is we’ve already set up capacity way beyond 20%.
When we do that, we’ll discuss.
Green hydrogen – we’ve succeeded in bringing the price of a kilo of green hydrogen down quite a bit. It used to be $5-something; now it is below $4.
But one more thing, CBG—yesterday I was so happy that one of our companies signed for 13 CBG plants.
Look, it’s a mix. It’s diversified. So, energy security—you said these things will not work. We need energy to sit here, to have your cameras, your lights on, and the air conditioning.
You need an energy transition because, at the end of the day, we want to leave the planet in a better shape than we inherited it, which will mean a transition to green energy.
My own view is that green hydrogen is the energy which will be the wave, the future wave, I hope so. But we have to bring the cost down.
CBG, natural gas—it’s very big. It’s the link fuel, because cylinder gas is still the product of a refinery.
I must do that because my 33.3 crore household connections, which is our population, deserve it, and they’re getting it at very reasonable prices.
Natural gas through a pipeline is becoming more available. We have 25,500 kilometres of operational pipeline, and green hydrogen—you saw a green hydrogen bus here.
So, all these things are part of a package.
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Q: You said by 2050, 10% of global demand would come from India.
A: I think somebody more senior to me, the PM, made the statement.
Q: 85% of import dependence. Are we looking at dependence?
A: Our E&P is going up. If you get major finds. One of the things I’m very encouraged about is the Prime Minister’s instructions to us, and what has come out in his Samudra Manthan, which I think is brilliant.
We’ll be digging hundreds of wells. And now look at that area. I’m giving you two areas. One is Andaman and Nicobar. You can see the situation. It’s the same ocean which comes from Indonesia up to Myanmar and down.
Everywhere we drill a well, we get oil. It’s a question of how strong you are – when you do your mapping there. In Guyana, they dug 46 wells, each costing $100 million. It’s on the 47th that they got oil.
So, we have just started. And, as I said, we had a dead decade.
ONGC is doing very well. When they were supposed to be doing E&P in a previous government, they were giving subsidy on cylinder gas, ₹55,000 crore. So, the people were not doing their work. So, I’m very optimistic now.
For the full interview, watch the accompanying video
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