Page 6 - AsianOil Week 12 2021

AsianOil SOUTH ASIA AsianOil

India pursues import diversity strategy

POLICY THE Indian government has said African oil and be seeking commercial partners in Africa to
gas producers could play a key role in helping the meet India’s growing energy needs through
South Asian country diversify its hydrocarbon imports of crude oil, LNG and other petroleum
supplies. and energy products.”
Although the central government has fre- India’s oil and gas import dependence in the
quently cited its need to diversify energy supplies first 10 months of fiscal 2020-2021 accounted
over the years, given the country’s heavy reliance for 77.1% of domestic demand, Pradhan told the
on foreign supplies of oil and gas, New Delhi’s Lok Sabha on March 22.
diversification drive has gained added momen- “Government is making all efforts to reduce
tum in recent months following a surge in inter- import dependence. India’s oil and oil-equiv-
national oil prices. alent gas import dependence in 2014-15 and
“As India seeks to further diversify sourcing 2015-16 was 68.9% and 72.2% respectively,
of crude oil and LNG, Africa has a central role and during current April-January, 2020-21 [it]
– largely due to its proximity and absence of any is 77.1%,” Pradhan said in a written reply to the
choke points in transhipments,” Indian Minis- lower house of parliament.
ter of Petroleum and Natural Gas Dharmendra He added: “At present, exploration and pro-
Pradhan said on March 24. duction activities are taking place [on a] 275,000
Pradhan said African oil accounted for sq.km area across different sedimentary basins
around 15%, or 34mn tonnes (640,000 barrels across India.”
per day, (bpd)), of India’s oil imports in 2020. Pradhan has been an outspoken critic of
His comments about choke points came the OPEC+ this year, complaining that the organi-
day before the Suez Canal was blocked when the sation has failed to deliver stable and reasonable
Ever Given bulk carrier ran aground. The situ- oil prices that are need to support the global eco-
ation has triggered speculation that oil prices nomic recovery. He has warned that India would
could spike, given that around 10% of global oil need to diversify its imports as well as speed up
shipments passes through the canal. its adoption of alternative energy supplies if
Pradhan said: “Therefore, we would naturally OPEC+ could not deliver reasonable prices.™

SOUTHEAST ASIA

SKK Migas: 15% of Indonesia’s

offshore facilities stand idle

PERFORMANCE INDONESIA’S upstream regulator SKK Migas
has revealed that more than 15% of the country’s
offshore oil and gas facilities are standing idle.
As many as 107 of the country’s 634 offshore
rigs and platforms are not operational, with
some facilities lacking the necessary funding for
decommissioning work, local news outlet IDX
Channel quoted SKK Migas deputy of opera-
tions of Julius Wiratno as saying on March 23.
“So, some say 103 or 107; what is true is that
currently there are 100 with this status, and these end-of-life development.
are scattered in Kangean, ONWJ, OSES, WMO, However, Wiratno added that of the more
PHKT and EMP Malacca Strait,” Wiratno said. than 100 platforms that remained out of action,
He added that while any platform suspected many had been built prior to 1994 without a plan
of disturbing the environment was required to or funding for the decommissioning phase of the
be decommissioned, not all of the idle platforms project’s lifecycle.
were ready for this stage. Wiratno said: “There “So what was not well planned in the past,
are still platforms where the wells have not been no funds were reserved. For new contracts, after
permanently plugged and abandoned. So of 1994 there were funds,” he said.
course they cannot be cut.” Indonesian production-sharing contracts
The official added that some of these inactive (PSCs) had traditionally not contained decom-
projects might also end up proving suitable for missioning obligations in the years prior to 1994.

P6 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 12 25•March•2021