India will become main source of oil demand growth after 2020: IEA

05 Dec 2013 Evaluate

The International Energy Agency (IEA), in its annual World Energy Outlook, has said that global energy demand is switching decisively in favour of emerging economies and India will become the largest single source of global oil demand growth after 2020, mainly on back of rising economic growth and increase in population. China will dominate oil demand in Asia till 2020 before Indian will take over the position as the major global oil demand driver, it added.  IEA's World Energy Outlook 2013 forecasts the global oil demand to reach 101 million barrels per day (mbpd) by year 2035 from present demand of around 87 mbpd.

IEA head Maria van der Hoeven said that by 2035, India's energy demand will double and the country will also become the largest importer of coal and fourth largest importer of natural gas after European Union, China and Japan. However, India’s per capita consumption of energy will remain one-fourth of the OECD average. Regarding the rising coal consumption in India, V D Hoeven said that coal imports will rise primarily because India uses the fossil fuel for generation of electricity. Coal is major source of power generation in India accounting for around 68 percent of electricity produced in the country.

Referring to India’s recent efforts for shale gas production, IEA has said that Indian may have shale gas potential, but it has to overcome challenges including public acceptance of shale exploration and will have to put in place proper infrastructure to transport gas, develop gas industry, solve water problem, proper fiscal regime, land laws and a remunerative gas price. 

Shale gas has become an increasingly important source of natural gas in the United States over the past decade, and now interest has spread to potential shale gas reserves in Canada, Europe, Asia, and Australia. India too has initiated shale gas exploration programme and it is estimated that recoverable reserves of shale gas in the country is between 6 trillion cubic feet to 63 trillion cubic feet. The move is also a part of oil ministry’s roadmap for cutting India's dependence on imports to meet its domestic energy needs.

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