Far from reducing imports, India's oil and gas production has slumped

The country's dependence on imports has increased over the past four years and domestic production has fallen

At an energy conference in New Delhi in March 2015, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had set out a road map for reducing India’s crude oil imports by 10 per cent by 2022. This at a time when almost 77 per cent of the country’s fuel requirements were met via imports.

Four years later, the “2022 dream” appears to be a distant reality. The share of imports, in fact, increased to 81.7 per cent in 2016-17, 82.9 per cent in 2017-18 and 84.7 per cent in 2018-19, according to the latest available government data.

This is despite the ministry of petroleum