CHENNAI : Continue to explore alternative sources of energy options to meet the increasing demand for fuel and to preserve available resources: This was the bottomline of the two-day national seminar on India's oil economy, which began at DG Vaishnav College, Arumbakkam on Wednesday.

Participants at the meet hosted by the Economics department discussed various issues including the changes in parameters of the oil sector and the mismatch between demand and pricing of petroleum products.

Inaugurating the seminar on Wednesday, which saw the participation of 200 delegates from across the nation, C.S. Jain, executive director, Basin manager, Cauvery, Oil and Natural Gas Corporation, elaborated on the industry's perspective of the oil economy in India.

Highlighting the issue of frequent changes in oil pricing that affected the consumers, Mr. Jain said that the production cost had also simultaneously gone up.

He pointed out that India peaked its oil production in 1995, and no major oil discoveries had been made in the world in the past three decades.

World oil production would peak by 2010, but resources of liquid hydrocarbons remained untapped, he said. In India, he said the industry met 30 per cent of the requirement of crude oil. The higher demand for gas, an emerging energy resource, was not met.

Oil pricing was a major issue concerning the growth of the nation's economy. He said that the gas pricing system could not be sustained as the production cost had also seen enormous changes. The drilling cost for an average day had gone up by nearly thrice in the past three years, he noted. As the industry was moving into unknown territory in terms of discovery of oil and gas reserves, the low level of price cannot be sustained.

R.N.Nigam, principal of Delhi College of Arts and Commerce, University of Delhi, said a cautious approach to the partnership with other industries must be adopted during oil discoveries, which would incur huge investment.

Investing in oil reserves that would serve short-term exploration, would lead to imports and imbalance in foreign exchange.

Besides allotting funds to research and development of alternative energy sources, he urged that a regulatory authority should be set up to solve problems faced by consumers.

About 40 papers are due to be presented on developments in the oil economy, oil prices and alternative energy resources.

P. Haridas, secretary of MOP Vaishnav College, K.L.Ramachandran, DDGD Vaishnav college, S.Narasimhan, head of the department of Economics and S.R.Damani, college secretary participated.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail