India’s recent reforms, including diversification of sources of imports and changes in gas pricing mechanism, had ensured that prices of petrol and diesel in India declined while the global prices were shooting up, said Union Minister of Petroleum & Natural Gas Hardeep Singh Puri on Wednesday.

Referring to the global energy production and supply situation, Puri stated that the challenge is to make sure that the transition is done in an orderly manner.

“That we have access to traditional fuel and make predictable transition to cleaner fuel. Balanced and realistic dialogue is needed and not vilification of fossil fuel,” he said.

Hardeep Singh Puri participated in a ministerial panel titled “Ensuring energy security for nations and industry in a VUCA world” at India Energy Week 2024.

At the panel, Saad Sherida Al Kaabi, Energy Affairs, Cabinet minister, Qatar, Vickram Bharat, Minister of Natural Resources Republic of Guyana, and Secretary General OPEC, Haitham Al Ghais were also present.

Secretary General OPEC, Al Ghais, observed that even as energy transition was vital, “energy transition can have multiple pathways. This is how we should look at energy transition. At OPEC we continue to invest, and we need hundreds of billions of investment over the next 20 years.”

Al Ghais also emphasised the need for investment in fossil fuel production. “We need to invest as demand is likely to continue to grow,” he added.

Sherida Al Kaabi, Minister of State for Energy Affairs, Qatar, said that renewable sources of energy do not completely solve the global energy needs. “It is not responsible to say we do not use fossil fuel. It is like humanity shooting itself in the foot,” he added.

Vickram Bharat, Minister of Natural Resources, Republic of Guyana, said that the new hydrocarbon found offshore Guyana was a step towards prosperity.

“The new hydrocarbon find offshore Guyana has made the world notice us. Our policy is very simple. Get hydrocarbons out of the ground as fast as possible and use that to build traditional sectors. The window on oil is closing, not so much for gas,” he noted.

It is worth highlighting here that VUCA stands for volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity. It describes the situation of constant, unpredictable change that is now the norm in certain industries and areas of the business world.