Dharmendra Pradhan inaugurates India Pavilion in Abu Dhabi

Union Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas and Steel Dharmendra Pradhan on Monday inaugurated the India Pavilion at the Abu Dhabi International Petroleum Exhibition and Conference (ADIPEC). The India Pavilion has been set up by nine Indian Oil and Gas companies from the upstream, midstream, downstream and engineering segments, along with Federation of Indian Petroleum Industry (FIPI), Directorate General of Hydrocarbons (DGH) and Confederation of Indian Industry (CII).

While inaugurating the exhibition, Pradhan said, "India has a huge appetite for energy, and will be a driver of global energy demand in coming decades. In fact, oil and gas would continue to play a critical role in meeting our energy requirement, in the coming two decades even as we adopt renewable energy."

He further said, "Our focus is to attract global investments into the oil and gas sector, as India would invest 100 billion dollars by 2024 in refining, pipelines and gas terminals. There is no better place to invest if you are in the business of energy. Political stability, predictable policies and a hugely diverse market make India an attractive investment destination for global investors. We have recently liberalized the entry norms for fuel retailing which has paved the way for the entry of new players in the fuel retailing space and enhancing competition."

At the ADIPEC inaugural global discussion in Abu Dhabi, Pradhan said, "We are working to make PM Modi’s vision to make India a gas-based economy and working for a more cleaner and greener environment. For this we will be working on investing in gas based infrastructure like increase in CGD and PNG network and gas-based industries.” 

He added that global energy transition is driven by Asia becoming the centre of energy consumption, greater availability of LNG, the greater promise of energy independence through renewables including solar and wind energy, emergence of US a leading hydrocarbons exporter and the urgency to meet COP 21 Paris climate commitments