India’s Largest Oil and Gas Company to invest $12 Billion in Renewables
Indian state-held oil and gas explorer, Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Limited (ONGC), the biggest oil and gas producer in the country, is looking to boost its renewable energy portfolio and plans $12 billion in investment in green projects.
ONGC looks to have as much as 10,000 megawatts, or 10 GW, in its portfolio of operations by 2030, up from just 189 MW at the end of March, ONGC’s chairman Arun Kumar Singh said at a press conference on Monday, as carried by Bloomberg.
“India will continue to grow in fossil fuel demand until 2040, but at the same time we have to step up our efforts for green energy,” Singh said during the press briefing.
“We have to do this so that both worlds can co-exist,” he added.
Despite its push into wind and solar electricity generation, India is set to remain heavily reliant on coal power at least until 2030, Bloomberg reported earlier this month, citing the country’s Central Electric Authority.
India’s coal minister said at the end of 2022 that the country has no intention of ditching coal from its energy mix any time soon. Addressing a parliamentary committee, Coal Minister Pralhad Joshi said that coal would continue to play an important role in India until at least 2040, referring to the fuel as an affordable energy source for which demand has yet to peak in India.
ONGC is the latest big energy firm in India to commit to investments in the renewable energy sector.
Early last year, India’s oil-to-telecoms conglomerate Reliance Industries said it would invest as much as $76 billion in green energy projects in India over the next 15 years. Reliance Industries already announced the year prior a commitment to invest more than $10 billion in three years in a new business unit that would build solar module, battery storage, electrolyzer, and fuel cell factories.
This year in March, Indian Oil Corp, the country’s top refiner and fuel retailer, said it would consolidate all its green energy businesses into a wholly-owned unit with the purpose of boosting its clean energy division.
