India seeks to boost cooperation with Africa in hydrocarbon sector

Africa can play a major role in meeting India's growing demand for crude oil and natural gas in the years ahead and New Delhi in turn hopes to emerge a dependable supplier of petroleum products to the continent.

India seeks to expand its presence across the hydrocarbon value chain in Africa and with Africa's economic development picking up momentum and its energy demands increasing, India is also poised to become a dependable supplier of petroleum products to Africa, minister of state for petroleum and natural gas R P N Singh said on the sidelines of the 3rd India Africa Hydrocarbons Conference in New Delhi today.

India is the world's 4th largest oil importer, with oil and gas constituting 45 per cent of the country's primary energy basket (oil 35 per cent and natural gas 10 per cent). About 78 per cent of India's petroleum consumption is met through crude oil imports, while about 25 per cent of natural gas consumption also comes from imports.

Along with rising consumption demand for oil in the country, India's refining capacity is also expected to go up from 194 million tonnes at present to around 238 million tonnes by 2013, an additional capacity of 40 million tonnes.

India, the minister said, has been consciously diversifying its sources of crude oil imports in order to reduce its dependence on any particular region of the world. ''Today, 21.5 per cent (35.3 million tonnes per annum as against 22 million tonnes in 2004-05) of India's crude oil imports come from Africa, with major supplies coming from countries like Nigeria, Angola, Algeria, Egypt, Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea and Sudan,'' he said.

While Africa is expected to supply a major part of the incremental supplies of crude oil and natural gas, India is emerging as a major supplier of petroleum products to countries of the African continent, he said.