India's energy demands bound to grow exponentially in coming years: Hardeep Puri

New Delhi, Oct 10 (IANS) Petroleum Minister Hardeep Puri on Tuesday said that India's energy demand will continue to provide fuel for future economic growth and is bound to grow exponentially in the coming years.

He said that at present the country is the world's third largest consumer of oil, third largest LPG consumer, fourth largest LNG importer, fourth largest refiner, fourth largest automobile market.

India is likely to account for 25 per cent of global energy demand growth over the next two decades, he emphasised.

With the launch of the Biofuels Alliance, Puri said that the global biofuel market will go up from $92 billion at present to $200 billion very shortly.

However, he said, this is not the end of the story as the real story on biofuels has just started. "The 10 per cent ethanol blending has led to considerable savings on the import bill and it will increase with 20 per cent blending," he stated.

The minister said that the surest means of determining a country’s growth is to look at its energy consumption. And India’s energy consumption is three times of the global average.

Going forward, he suggested, "We should have more gatherings like this, encourage more countries to come and take advantage of all the discussions".

The minister further informed that the 10 per cent target on biofuel blending by November, 2022 was attained five months in advance, and the 20 per cent biofuel blending target of 2030 has been advanced to 2025.

Puri was addressing a gathering at the inauguration of the 26th Energy Technology Meet.