India is likely to overtake Japan to become the world's third largest oil consumer behind the US and China by 2025, according to the report of the US Energy Information Administration (EIA). The US EIA, in its Annual Energy Outlook report highlighted that India's oil consumption is expected to rise from 3.68 million barrels per day (173.5 million tonnes) in 2012 to 5.19 million bpd in 2025, overtaking Japan's 4.38 million bpd consumption.
The report further added that during the period 2012-2040, India's oil consumption growth rate will be highest in the world with around 3 percent compounded annual growth rate to 8.33 million bpd in 2040. On global front, the US EIA report highlighted that China's oil consumption is projected to rise from 10.36 million barrels per day in 2012 to 15.70 million bpd in 2025 and 20.48 million bpd in 2040, posting a compounded annual growth rate of 2.5 percent during 2012-2040. The US will continue to be the world's biggest oil consumer but with almost no demand growth. The US consumed 18.21 million bpd of oil in 2012 which is projected to increase 18.97 million bpd in 2025 and to 18.42 million bpd in 2040. Japan consumed 4.75 million bpd of oil in 2012.
India currently is the fourth largest oil consumer in the world behind the US, China and Japan, and imports around 80 percent of its oil needs. In the previous year 2013, India had overtaken Japan as the world's third-biggest crude oil importer. It imported 3.86 million bpd of crude oil in 2013, nearly 6 percent higher than Japan's customs-cleared imports of 3,648,372 bpd. The US EIA report estimates that India will become the world's largest oil importer by 2020. Meanwhile, the Government of India (GoI) has formulated a roadmap for cutting India's dependence on imports to meet its oil needs. The Government wants country’s oil imports dependence to be cut to 50 percent by 2020 and by 25 percent in 2025 through intensive exploration and exploitation of untapped reserves. Presently, only 0.93 million sq km area in India is held under exploration and production in 19 basins as compared to total estimated sedimentary area of 3.14 million square kilometres, comprising 26 sedimentary basins.
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