Conservation is a crucial pillar of India's Energy Independence

Bhaskar Jyoti Phukan

(The writer is the Managing Director I/C, Numaligarh Refinery Limited)

The global economy has faced a double whammy over the past two years on the back of a full-blown Covid-19 pandemic, followed by supply chain disruptions and rising geopolitical tensions which culminated in the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine. It has put forth a unique cocktail for energy markets to achieve.

This has put immense pressure on countries like India which is now the world's fastest-growing major economy and the 3rd largest energy consumer after China and the USA at a primary energy consumption level of 764 MTOE and estimated to double at 1500 MTOE by 2035. In the coming years, India will witness unprecedented growth in urbanization, infrastructure development, access to finance etc. India is expected to grow at a much faster rate than compared to the world average. Therefore, our energy demand is expected to grow at about 3% per annum till 2040, compared to the global rate of 1%, as India's share in global energy demand doubles to 11%.

India is largely dependent on energy imports and more than 85% of its oil and gas is imported to meet domestic demand. India's oil and gas import bill is around Rs 9 lakh crore per annum, which is 25% of total imports. Therefore, consumption of oil and gas has a big impact on the economy and conservation of every drop of oil and gas contributes to the nation by reducing the import bill.

India's daily consumption of crude oil is around 5 million barrels amounting to approximately 1.8 billion barrels per year of the refining capacity which is slated to go even higher year on year. As such our country is self-sufficient in refining capacity for domestic consumption and also exports petroleum products extensively. We are already witnessing a significant uptick in fuel consumption. Petrol consumption has gone up 1.6% from its pre-Covid levels of 2511 TMT (Feb 2020) to 2551 TMT (Feb 2022).

Oil prices have impacted most economies globally – with advanced economies as well as developing ones (including the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, Australia, Singapore, and Thailand) reeling under high inflationary pressures. China, the world's largest oil importer, faces a squeeze on companies' profits and consumer spending power, as well as slower demand for its exports — complicating Beijing's effort to stabilize a slowing economy.

Volatilities in the international petroleum market can be severely detrimental to the growth potential of our nation. India is transitioning fast on diversifying its energy basket by shifting focus more toward renewable energy, aligned with India's commitments at the COP26 in Glasgow.

The concern in the country about scarce petroleum reserves led to forming a nodal agency PCRA (Petroleum Conservation Research Association) under the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas (MoPNG) to engage in promoting petroleum conservation and energy efficiency.

SAKSHAM (Sanrakshan Kshamta Mahotsav) is a significant yearly event observed at beginning of every calendar year in this context for mass awareness and mindfulness about the judicious consumption of fossil fuel. It finds ways to enhance the energy efficiency of fuel. This year due to backlash from yet another wave of Covid pandemic in January, Saksham' 22 is being celebrated in the country from 11th - 30th April on the theme Celebrating Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav through green and clean energy. Under the theme, GOI is promoting to adopt and adapt to cleaner fuels, embracing biofuel and decarbonising mobility, thus reducing dependency on imports as well as stabilising CO2 emission.

NRL, in collaboration with PCRA, has been actively playing a leading role in the fulfilment of the abovementioned objectives as well as promoting SAKSHAM 2022 through a slew of events across all its locations. NRL has conducted cyclotrons and walkathons with more than 650 participants, online live seminars on thematic clean and green energy, awareness campaigns, e-quiz & other competitions, steam leak surveys in refinery steam networks etc., to involve and increase awareness among all stakeholders for energy conservation.

NRL is not only a true stakeholder of Saksham since the inception of the campaign but leading a few of the flagship projects towards expanding renewable energy supplies and domestic biofuels production like the Bamboo-based Bio-Ethanol plant for the production of 6 lakh crore litres per annum of ethanol from bamboo, a non-food grade biomass using first of its kind technology from Chempolis, Finland. Ethanol will be blended with petrol and thus will contribute towards import substitution. The biorefinery will also produce other value-added platform chemicals like Acetic Acid, Furfural. Moreover, the plant is envisaged as a Zero Liquid Discharge (ZLD) and Carbon neutral plant.

NRL could achieve noteworthy performance in energy efficiency by undertaking sustained effort towards energy efficiency and conservation measures. Fared excellent in the key energy performance indicators saving more than 25KTOEPA year on year Under Perform Achieve and Trade (PAT) of MoP, NRL is issued tradable energy saving certificates for overachieving the PAT target set by BEE in 2018-19. We are gearing up for the forthcoming PAT cycle FY2022-23 where again 5% reduction target over the previous cycle performance is imposed on all energy-intensive industries, including the refining sector.

The nation needs all our zeal for energy conservation if India is to fulfil its true potential of energy independence. I encourage you to seek out and embrace this message of SAKSHAM 2022 and become a brand ambassador with all your family and friends to make it a 'Jan-Andolan'.

(Published on the occasion of SAKSHAM (Sanrakshan Kshamta Mahotsav) 2022, the month-long awareness drive from 11th April to 30th April 2022 spearheaded by the Petroleum Conservation Research Association (PCRA) under the aegis of the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas)