Andhra Pradesh - Visakhapatnam   

Oil crisis looms large: expert

VISAKHAPATNAM: Though there is approximately 1,000 billion barrels of crude oil still underground, India, the seventh largest consumer of oil in the world, might face acute shortage of oil by 2035 so also China, said University of Petroleum (Deharadun) Vice-Chancellor S.J. Chopra here on Saturday.

Both the countries consume more oil than what they produce, with India presently producing only 30 per cent of its total oil requirement. By 2030, China’s installed capacity of oil would touch 14.6 million barrels per day (MBPD) and that of India 5.2 MBPD. India would be only a marginal exporter of its refining capacity by then, he said.

Presenting the Prof. Chelikani Chiranjivi Endowment Lecture on the energy scenario and petroleum refining industry in India at Andhra University, Prof. Chopra said 44 oil producing nations meet 99 per cent of world’s oil requirement (like petrol, diesel etc.,) and 24 of these nations had already crossed their peak oil production. He pointed out that 90 per cent of transport operation was carried out using oil.

In the energy market, 40 per cent of requirement was met by oil, followed by coal – 26 per cent and gas – 24 per cent and as per rough estimate, by the year 2035, about 140 million barrels per day of oil had to be discovered, extracted, refined and marketed. Turning to renewable energy like tapping solar energy by fixing solar collectors on every roof top and utilising tidal energy were some of the solutions to meet the huge energy demand in the future. “Energy poverty is emerging as a new killer in developing nations,” he warned. Prof. Chopra said hydrocarbons would continue to play a leading role in meeting world’s oil demand and Liquefied Nitrogen Gas (LNG) was likely to be a key driver in the next 20-30 years. Similarly natural gas would be one of the areas which would pick up in the near future.

By 2035, the world would require twice the energy consumed today, he added. AU V-C L. Venugopal Reddy paid rich encomiums to late Chiranjivi who worked as a HoD of Chemical Engineering in the engineering college. Principal in-charge of AU Engineering College A. Ravi Prasad participated.

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