India will more than double the area under exploration and production of oil and gas to 0.5 million square kilometres by 2025 and 1 million square kilometres by 2030, with the goal of increasing domestic output and reducing reliance on imported fuel, Petroleum Minister Hardeep Singh Puri said on Friday.

He remarked at the World Energy Policy Summit 2022 that the world's third-largest energy consumer will continue to rely on hydrocarbons to meet its expanding energy needs for the foreseeable future.  Currently, 85 percent of India's oil and 50 percent of its natural gas requirements are met by imports. This is due to a lack of domestic output.

"With the goal of increasing domestic oil and gas production, we've set an ambitious goal of increasing the area under exploration and production to 0.5 million sq km by 2025, and to 1 million sq km by 2030," he said.

In the previous five years, seven rounds of acreage auctions under the new Open Acreage Licensing Policy (OALP) have doubled the area under oil and gas exploration to 207,692 (0.2 million) sq km.

Puri says that as the Indian economy grows from its current level of USD 3 trillion to USD 5 trillion by 2025 and USD 10 trillion by 2030, there would be a surge in energy demand.

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