By Shailesh Yadav

New Delhi [India], August 7 (ANI): Union Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas Hardeep Singh Puri on Friday said India's fuel retail network had remained fully resilient through recent global disruptions, addressing controversy around the E20 ethanol-blended petrol at the CII International Energy Conference & Exhibition.

Responding to concerns raised after an industry body wrote on July 28, Puri said intensive testing had actually begun two weeks earlier. Oil marketing companies collected around 2,000 samples daily from petrol stations nationwide using dedicated testing teams, he said. Out of India's 107,000 retail outlets serving six to seven crore customers a day only four contamination cases were found. He suggested some parties were presenting the findings out of context.

Puri said India's retail fuel network had expanded from 52,000 outlets in 2014 to roughly 107,000 today, and that not one outlet had run out of stock despite global supply pressures. He attributed this to diversified crude sourcing, resilient infrastructure, trusted international partnerships, technological upgrades and strategic reserves India currently holds about 74 days of reserve capacity, he said.

Puri noted that India is now the world's third-largest energy consumer and importer, and the fourth-largest refiner, with energy demand growing at roughly three times the global average. Citing International Energy Agency, he said India could account for nearly 30% of the increase in global oil demand between now and 2050. He contrasted this with declining refining capacity in Europe and the US, noting Europe is losing around 200,000 barrels per day in refining capacity while the US has not commissioned a new refinery in 50 years.

On LPG, Puri said a brief period of concern over supplies from Gulf nations near the Strait of Hormuz was addressed by ramping up domestic LPG production from about 34,000 to 55,000 metric tonnes a day, achieved partly by reconfiguring refinery output. He said the United States now supplies about 67% of India's LPG imports, reducing reliance on the Gulf region.

The minister also highlighted a collaboration between ONGC, Brazil's Petrobras and BP to revive production at the Mumbai High offshore fields, discovered in 1974. The government will support drilling costs by up to 50%, capped at around 650 crore per well, he said.

On fuel prices, Puri said that while global crude volatility had pushed petrol and diesel prices up marginally in recent years, excise duty cuts announced by the central government in November 2021, May 2022 and March 2026 cumulatively around Rs 10 per litre had kept Indian retail fuel prices among the most affordable globally, notably lower than neighbouring countries as well as several European nations.

He struck a cautiously optimistic note on the outlook, saying that while global uncertainties persist, India remains well-placed to manage future challenges. (ANI)