India's crude oil consumption set to reach 6.5-7 million barrels a day in short to medium term, says Hardeep Singh Puri

Feb 27, 2025

ASSAM: India's crude oil consumption will touch the mark of six and a half to seven barrels a day in short to medium term, said Hardeep Singh Puri, Union Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas.

Speaking at the Advantage Assam 2.0, an investor summit organised by the state government, Puri said, "In the 3 and a half years of my being associated with this ministry, our crude oil consumption has gone up from 5 million barrels a day to 5 and a half million barrels. My speaking notes would say this will go upto 6 and a half 7 million a day not in the long future in the short to medium term Crude oil consumption will go up 20%, maybe more and along with that, you add all the other developments... Our target for 20% biofuel blending was 2026."

The minister further highlighted the relation between energy consumption and growth and added, "Any country, I don't mean just India, will be assessed in terms of its economic performance by its energy utilisation. I used to say till some months ago that energy is the backbone of the economy or the lifeline of an economy."

Furthermore, the minister added, " PM has put in place an ecosystem, and we have reached it... Today, any country that can achieve a biofuel blending target 6 years in advance means something is going good right there...India is currently spending something in the vicinity of 150 billion dollars on imports of different forms of energy."