India

India has emerged from decades of self-imposed isolation, and it now plays an ever-widening role on the world stage. Today, the country haltingly embraces free markets, somewhat reluctant to dilute its socialist ideals at the same time it grapples with a rapacious hunger for energy. For the past decade, India's burgeoning economy has propelled its growth in domestic oil and gas demand at three times the world average. The country is now the sixth-largest importer of crude oil in the world and the fifth-largest energy consumer. Energy use and economic growth are entwined, of course, and India's dilemma is that its homegrown production supplies less than 35% of its crude oil needs. The country hosts 26 sedimentary basins that cover 3.1 million square kilometers, but just 28 billion barrels of oil in place have been discovered in seven of those basins. As of January, India was home to proven reserves of only 5.6 billion barrels of oil and 38 trillion cubic feet (Tcf) of gas, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Unfortunately for India, that's less than 0.5% of the world's proved oil reserves. Indian wells currently make 846,000 barrels per day, and that volume is supplemented by 1.7 million barrels of foreign crude. India also uses all the natural gas it currently produces and it imports growing volumes of liquefied natural gas. With its 1.1 billion people and a red-hot economy, India desperately needs more oil and gas. Consequently, energy policy in India is driven by two main thrusts: discovering and producing more domestic resources, and securing supplies in foreign lands. For more on this, see the May issue of Oil and Gas Investor. For a subscription, call 713-260-6441.