India made associate member of International Energy Association

India has been elevated to associate member status of the International Energy Association (IEA), a development that will help to work together in the areas of mutual interests in the oil and gas sector; including capacity building to meet supply side disruptions.

The announcement was made at a meeting of minister of state for petroleum and natural gas Dharmendra Pradhan and minister of state for power, coal and new and renewable energy and mines minster Piyush Goyal with the executive director of IEA, Fatih Birol on Thursday.

Birol is visiting India to jointly announce the activation of 'association status' of India with IEA.

Pradhan welcomed the elevation of India's relationship with IEA from partnership status in 2013 to association status. He expressed confidence that with the association status the bilateral engagements between the two will further intensify and both can work towards balancing the global energy dynamics reflecting today's global realities.

He emphasized that IEA, as an international organisation, should represent both producing and consuming countries and called for constructive and frequent dialogues between producing and consuming nations to safeguard mutual interests and to keep the markets at equilibrium.

India and IEA have an MoU since 2011 under which both are working on capacity building to respond to an oil emergency situation. With the association status in place, both India and IEA will work in the areas of mutual interests pertaining to oil and gas sector, including capacity building to meet supply side disruptions.

IEA is a Paris-based autonomous organisation established in 1974. It's mandate is to work towards ensuring reliable, affordable and clean energy mainly for its 29 member countries by coordinating collective response to major disruptions in oil supply through release of oil stocks into the global markets.

In the recent times, IEA has evolved its scope to a full mix of energy resources and has acquired an important part of global dialogue on energy, providing research, data/statistics, analysis and recommendations on the global energy sector. Today, the four main areas of focus of IEA are - energy security, economic development, environmental awareness and energy engagement worldwide.

IEA has the working knowledge of different stockholding models, financing options for filling of caverns and future stock buildups, emergency oil stock release mechanism and procedures and creating suitable mechanisms in this regard.