IEW 2025: PM Modi emphasizes energy security, sustainability as India's appetite for fuel grows

India's energy growth roadmap will witness refining sector expansion, a push towards deepwater exploration, a bigger share of gas, as well as an expanded footprint of cleaner fuels as New Delhi looks to meet its sustainability goals, Prime Minister Narendra Modi told the India Energy Week 2025 on Feb. 11.

In a recorded message aired during the opening session of IEW, Modi said that to ensure energy security in India and to achieve that in a sustainable manner India would need a broad-based approach and embrace all kinds of fuels. For that, the country had undertaken a series of reforms to attract investors from across the world.

"India is committed to global sustainability and this is creating more opportunities for our energy sector," Modi told the conference. "Some of our recent energy reforms will help us to achieve our targets."

"On the oil side, we are one of the largest refining hubs and India will look to expand its refinery capacity by 20% in the foreseeable future," Modi said.

India's refining capacity now stands at 256.8 million mt, making it the fourth-largest nation after the US, China, and Russia. And in line with India's strategic energy goals, efforts are underway to expand the refining capacity to 310 million mt by 2030.

S&P Global Commodity Insights estimates that by 2028, close to 58% of the refinery capacity increase would come from brownfield expansions, while the remaining growth will come from greenfield projects.

Upstream, gas demand

"Our upstream sector is getting attractive because of some of the recent reforms. Our Open Acreage Licensing Policy is making things easier. Deepwater exploration will play a key role in our upstream portfolio," Modi said, as India launched the tenth round of OALP at IEW.

In recent years, India has implemented a series of upstream reforms -–from granting producers greater marketing freedom to allowing companies to designate areas for oil and gas exploration under the Open Acreage Licensing Policy, which enables year-round expressions of interest and subsequent auctions for earmarked areas.

Last December, the upper house of Parliament passed a bill seeking to amend the Oil Fields (Regulation and Development) Act of 1948, broadening its scope to include shale oil, shale gas, and coal bed methane, while also proposing changes like allowing international arbitration for disputes and offering a longer lease period.

"Oil and gas will continue to play a pivotal role in India's energy mix," Petroleum Minister Hardeep Puri told the conference, adding that it was extremely crucial to pursue an orderly energy transition.

"Energy justice must remain the core of energy transition. If transition is not just it will not succeed," Puri said. "And I also want to add that artificial intelligence and proving clean cooking fuels will be among the key drivers of our energy growth."

Speaking on India's ambitions to raise the share of gas in its energy mix, Puri said India was actively taking steps in that direction.

To a question on whether energy discussions would be on the agenda when Modi visits the United States for talks with US president Donald Trump later this week, Puri said he would be surprised if it was not on the agenda.

Puri said India was buying around $20 billion of energy from the US every year. As the country was expanding the capacity of its LNG terminals, it was also in the market for more long-term LNG deals. "The new US administration's thrust on energy is music to my ears," he added.