Although India’s per capita energy consumption is one of the lowest (and much lower than developed countries) India still ranks 4th largest energy consuming nation in the world according to the latest report released by U.S Energy Information & Administration. United States is the biggest Energy Consumer followed by China and Russia.
India’s energy consumption has more than doubled since 1990 and although India has one of the highest amounts of coal reserves, she is heavily dependent on imported crude oil. Coal currently accounts for nearly 41 percent of energy produced in India.
Oil & Petroleum Products
According to EIA report, India is also fourth largest consumer of oil and petroleum products after U.S, China and Japan. Over last decade, India’s Oil consumption has grown much more than what is produces and hence it has to rely heavily on Oil imports. India is also fourth the largest importer of oil and petroleum products.
In 1990, 40 percent of the Oil demand was met via imports; but in last 2 decades the import percentage has rise to over 70 percent of the demand.
India imports about 63 percent of its crude oil from Middle eastern countries like Saudi Arabia, UAE, Kuwait, Iraq etc. while Americas account for 18 percent crude oil imports followed by Africa (17 percent).
India’s Natural gas consumption (LNG) has also increased drastically over the years. Till 2004, India produced enough natural gas to meet the demand, however since then it has relied on imports from countries like Qatar to meet the local demand. In 2011, India became world’s sixth largest natural gas importer in the world.
India has 5th largest reserves of coal in the world, however, due to inefficiencies in this sector, the production is not able to meet the demand for coal. Due to increasing coal demand and inefficient production import for coal has grown by over 13 percent per year since 2001.
According to the IEA report, India had a installed electricity generating capacity of 211 Gigawatts as of Sept. 2012. However, due to insufficient fuel supplies (like Coal) of fuel, most parts of India have to suffer from shortage of electricity. Here are the various sources through which India produces its electricity.
Energy Consumption Growth Rate
According to the EIA report, India will see maximum growth in energy consumption till 2035. It will be even more than compared to China and over 6 times more than United States and 5 times more than Russia. Though the growth rate will be highest, the overall energy consumption will still be much lower as compared to United States and China.