Expressing concern over sharp decline in self-sufficiency in oil from 70 per cent to 30 per cent, planning commission said today massive dependence on oil imports to meet the country's energy needs had made it vulnerable to oil price fluctuations.
Only thirty per cent of petroleum is indigenously produced. The country's massive dependence on imports to meet its total energy needs has led to a vulnerablility that India faces on account of global oil price fluctuations, Deputy Chariman of the Planning Commission K C Pant said at the valedictory of Petrotech-2001.
Pant said that India was way behind other developing countries in the areas of energy efficiency, demand side management and use of alternative fuels.
Self-sufficiency in oil has come down from a whopping 70 per cent to just 30 per cent, He said adding that there was an urgent need to reduce energy needs by demand side management and by adopting more efficient technologies.
Dwelling on the future energy outlook, pant said hydrocarbons would continue to occupy a dominant role in the world energy scenario at least for the next two decades.
Even though India has sizeable energy resources in terms of coal, hydro-electricity and nuclear energy, domestic hydrocarbon resources as of now are not sufficient to sustain the increasing demand for energy and the country may have to depend on imports, Pant said.

Bureau Report