India plans to invest Rs 40,000 cr to upgrade refineries

Chennai, May 20 (UNI) India has planned to invest Rs 40,000 crore in the next four years to upgrade the refineries in the country, a government official said.

While delivering a lecture at the Indo-Japan Chamber of Commerce and Industry here last night, Secretary to the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas MS Srinivasan said that out of the total outlay, the government had already invested Rs 10,000 crore in upgrading the refineries and for the research and development.

He said the country's gas production, currently at 100 million cubic metres, would be more than doubled in the next 15 months.

By 2011, India would be marginally surplus in natural gas which will catapult it into the top ten countries, he added.

The secretary said India was becoming a major exporter of refined petro products.

''We expect to export 40 million tonnes of petro products to the US this year,'' he added.

He said technology will come in handy in dealing with renewable energy.

Commending Japan for their use of energy, Mr Srinivasan said ''Japan had no resources on its own, but made tremendous strides over the past 30-35 years. They planned their hydrocarbon use and have showed the way to the rest of the world.'' The Petroleum Secretary said there was a complementary and commonality of interest between Japan and India.

''India and Japan are natural partners and we will score more in terms of conquering energysecurity,'' he added.

He said gas hydrates was an emerging source of energy and Japan was doing a wonderful research on it, which would be shared with India.

UNI