‘India Soon to Overtake China as Largest Oil Demand Driver’

Date: 14 June 2023 - 22:02

News ID: ۱۱۶۰۹۶

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - India will soon overtake China as the largest driver of global oil demand even as it has an opportunity to become a world leader in green hydrogen production, International Energy Agency (IEA) chief Fatih Birol said Wednesday.
A swelling population, which has likely already surpassed that of China, is driving demand in the world’s third-largest energy-consuming nation. Its transition from fossil fuels to cleaner sources is expected to lag other regions, but cheap electricity produced from renewable energy sources like solar energy can help transform the nation into a green hydrogen leader.
“India’s oil demand will grow. I think India will soon takeover from China as the largest driver of global oil demand growth,” Birol told PTI on the sidelines of a G20 event in Delhi.
This is primarily because China has seen faster adoption of electric vehicles, leading to a drop in petrol and diesel consumption.
“One of the factors for the weakening of oil demand in China is rapid electrification of cars and buses,” he said.
He hoped that demand in India will go down as electrification (vehicles run on batteries charged by electricity) picks up.
EV sales in China nearly doubled to 6.1 million units in 2022 compared to 48,000 vehicles in India in the same period.
Earlier, speaking at the event, Birol said he had six years back stated that India is set to move to the centre stage of global energy affairs. “After 6 years today, I can tell you that India is at the centre of global energy affairs today.”
This is not just on the strength of its huge demand but also the rapid strides it has made in generating electricity from renewable sources like solar and using biofuels like ethanol produced from sugarcane, foodgrains and agri waste to replace fossil fuels.
Mixing 10 per cent ethanol in petrol helped the country avoid USD 2 billion equivalent of oil imports he said.
“In last 5 years, India was the largest contributor to the global solar capacity,” he said, adding it has provided 500 million people access to electricity and given cooking gas to nearly 100 million to eliminate household pollution caused by using wood and others for cooking.