Petroleum Ministry signs contracts for Discovered Small Fields, Coalbed Methane blocks

New Delhi [India], September 9 (ANI): The Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas (MoPNG) on Friday signed contracts for 31 Discovered Small Fields (DSF) blocks under DSF bid round-III and four CBM blocks under CBM bid round V awarded to 14 exploration and production domestic companies.
Union Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas Hardeep Singh Puri was present at the event in which he also unveiled the logo for India Energy Week (IEW) 2023, the ministry's flagship event to be held from February 6-8, 2023 in Bengaluru.

In the Open House following the Contract Exchange event, the minister highlighted that "India has demonstrated great resilience in the face of global energy crisis".
He said the government of India has taken several measures to minimize and mitigate the volatility of global crude oil and gas prices.
"Fuel price rise in India has been contained in comparison to the exponential rise in developed countries," said Puri, adding "most of the developed nations have witnessed significant inflation rise in Gasoline price by almost 40 per cent during July 21 to August 22, while in India, gasoline price has reduced by 2.12 per cent."

The minister said the gas price of all the major trading hubs has seen a massive increase during July 21 to August 22.
"Henry Hub of USA has seen an increase of 140 per cent. JKM Marker has seen an increase of almost 257 per cent and the UK, NBP has increased by 281 per cent. While in India CNG and PNG prices have been increased by only 71 per cent."

Even on the LPG front, Puri said, "In the past 24 months, Saudi CP price (our import benchmark) almost increased by 303 per cent. During the same period, the LPG price in India (Delhi) increased by less than a tenth of that figure that is 28 per cent."

Under the visionary leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the minister said, the government has been undertaking various initiatives to attract more exploration and production investment to increase self-reliance in the energy sector.

He said India's move towards a "gas-based economy" by connecting Indian consumers through the City Gas Distribution, enhancing regasification capacities, expanding pipeline networks and setting up CNG stations.

"Achievement of 10 per cent blending of ethanol in petrol in May 2022, ahead of the November 2022 deadline, setting up of 2G refineries to make ethanol, and a host of other initiatives, is a symbol of Government's resolve towards just energy transitions. The Green Hydrogen Mission, under which the Ministry is facilitating setting-up pilot scale and commercial scale green hydrogen manufacturing plants by refineries is a part of this commitment," said Puri.

He said the significance of the various social welfare schemes like the Prime Minister Ujjwala Yojna and its role in ending energy poverty, ensuring social upliftment and as a catalyst of social change cannot be emphasized enough.

On India Energy Week 2023, the minister stated that it would be a flagship event of the ministry, and also the first major energy event once India takes over the G20 Presidency.
The event will provide an unprecedented opportunity for regional and international leaders and CEOs to come together for strategic policy and technical knowledge sharing for energy justice and energy transitions, added the minister. (ANI)