India looking for more foreign investments in Oil sector: minister

India wants more foreign investments to inflow into upstream oil, gas exploration, and production as well as in downstream fuel marketing and petrochemicals.

Media reports quoted the country’s Oil Minister, Dharmendra Pradhan, as saying on Thursday.

The minister reportedly said that India wants to be the new destination for global energy players and that the country would secure world-class technology and implement any policy reforms needed to become an international energy leader.

Speaking at a conference attended by foreign energy players, the Indian minister stated that in order to attract investments in the oil sector, several reforms including opening up of fuel retailing to non-oil companies and overhaul of exploration licensing policy are being carried out.

The minister also said that India will see an investment of 100 billion U.S. dollars by 2024 in areas like oil refining, pipelines, city gas distribution networks, and LNG (Liquefied Natural Gas) terminals.

Out of the total investments, 60 billion U.S. dollars will go into the creation of gas infrastructures such as pipelines, city gas networks and import terminals.