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Mani Shanker Aiyer, Union Minister for Petroleum & Natural Gas and Panchayati Raj Visits XIMB Cabinet Minister for Petroleum & Natural Gas and Panchayati Raj, Shri Mani Shankar Aiyer today enthralled the students at XIMB by giving a comprehensive speech on India's energy security in the global scenario. The perfect weather acted as the perfect setting, as the Cabinet Minister combined facts from the global oil scenario with some light-hearted humor to put forward his views on the topic. While giving a complete overview of the India's energy status, he highlighted that the share of crude oil in the country's energy matrix would increase to almost 90% by 2025. "The share of civilian nuclear energy would only increase from 3% to 6% in meeting the demand, while the high-ash content in domestic coal reserves often make it unfeasible to produce power," commented Mani Shankar Aiyer. He even highlighted an example where Tamil Nadu found it cheaper to import coal from Australia rather than transport coal from Indian reserves to produce electricity. He felt that the government was moving forward with its plan to secure India energy concern for the coming years. "There would be no absolute shortage of oil for India at least till 2025," commented the Minister in a bid to calm fears about supply of oil to India. Taking a dig at the speculating forces that artificially increase the prices of global crude oil, he felt that there was urgent need of a truly free market. He said, "Even though there have been instances of some labour trouble in Nigeria, there has been no reduction in the oil production by Nigeria. Yet, there are some elements that manage to raise prices of global crude oil to even $70 per barrel. Sometimes even a threat of a terrorist attack on Saudi Arabia has the same effect." Contributed by - |
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