Make in India Initiative for Petroleum and Natural Gas – A Path to Energy Security

1) Hydrocarbon Exploration and Licensing Policy (HELP):

• Authorizes a single license in the exploration and production of all kinds of hydrocarbons.
• Ensures revenue sharing contracts among operators and simplification of the bidding process.

2) National Policy on Biofuels:

• Encourages the use of biofuels such as ethanol blended petrol.
Aspires to meet the blending of 20% ethanol with gasoline by the year 2025.

3) City Gas Distribution Projects:

Aids in diversifying and expanding the infrastructure of Pipelines for Natural Gas (PNG) and Compressed Natural Gas (CNG).

4) Strategic Petroleum Reserves:

Enhances energy security by preserving the stock pile of emergency petroleum stock.

5) Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana (PMUY):

Ensures LPG connections to the Rural Household in order to minimize the usage of conventional energy sources.

• Ethanol Blending Program (EBP): The goal of this program is to cut down the demand for importation of petrol by mixing the locally produced ethanol with petroleum thus creating an outlet for sugarcane farmers and producers of biofuel.
• Compressed Biogas (CBG): Similarly, the government has started schemes like the SATAT scheme, which increases the use of biogas generated by agricultural waste to add to the existing gaseous supply chains.
• Green Hydrogen Development: Recently, the petroleum refineries started to invest in green hydrogen technology to decrease carbon footprint and at the same time maintain energy security.

With the synergies of these renewable energy prototypes complementing the conventional arrangement of petroleum products, the Make in India scheme is pushing India towards energy security and sustainability.

The Make in India scheme has changed the petroleum and natural gas sector in a great way by encouraging self-sufficiency and reducing the import dependence, and innovation. Current government policies under Make in India initiative such as the Hydrocarbon Exploration and Licensing Policy (HELP) and the National Policy on Biofuels are enabling domestic exploration as well as the usage as well as investment in clean energy. However, some of the issues such as exploration constraints, high import dependency, infrastructure development, environment issues, and Technological dependence still cause a setback. Mitigating such barriers will form part of the approaches that need to be adopted to ensure that Make in India for Petroleum and Natural Gas realizes its potential of enhancing India’s energy security while at the same time realizing sustainable growth in the petroleum and natural gas sector.