India: more to discover?

Upstream reforms have lured 45 bidders to the country’s offshore—part of a plan to reduce imports

Imports account for about three-quarters of India's demand for hydrocarbons. And the country has its work cut out if it is to reach a target of cutting this number by 20% by 2022. A case in point: imports actually increased by 10% last year to meet rising demand. In the International Energy Agency's New Policies Scenario, its baseline forecast, total primary energy demand in India will almost triple in the next 25 years, rising from 0.775bn tonnes of oil equivalent (toe) in 2013 to 1.908bn toe in 2040. All those hydrocarbons will have to come from somewhere. To spur more domestic production, the government has overhauled the upstream process, from a production-sharing model to a revenue-shar