Canadian government looking for energy industry growth in India
by Canadian Manufacturing.com Staff
Energy ministers meet to promote opportunities between two nations
CALGARY—Canada’s Minister of Natural Resources, Greg Rickford, and India’s Minister of State for the Petroleum and Natural Gas Industry, Dharmendra Pradhan, met in Calgary for the second India-Canada Ministerial Energy Dialogue July 5.
The parties discussed enhancing energy cooperation between the two countries in the areas of oil, natural gas, clean energy, power transmission and skill development. They highlighted Canada and India’s growing energy partnership, by strengthening government to government and business to business relationships, to help create jobs and long-term economic prosperity for both countries.
“India and Canada share common values and ideals and believe in long-term sustained partnerships,” Pradhan said. “Our Energy Cooperation is steadily growing but the potential is much higher – let’s convert the potential into reality.”
Canada promotes itself as a reliable and responsible producer and supplier of energy that has the resources and expertise needed to support India’s growing energy needs. In 2012, India was the fourth-largest energy consumer in the world, and recent International Monetary Fund studies showed that India is expected to be the fastest growing economy during 2014-25. In addition, according to the International Energy Agency’s World Energy Outlook 2014, India’s oil demand growth between 2013 and 2040 will be the highest in the world.
In 2009, India received Canadian oil for the first time, and in 2014 the country imported over 1,500 barrels of Canadian crude per day. India has taken an active interest in Canadian natural gas and also intends to import over 7-million pounds of uranium over the next five years.
Moving forward, Canada could potentially supply a significant amount of the 44 billion cubic metres of natural gas that India is forecasted to import annually by 2025, the government said.
The Ministers also discussed opportunities to increase Indian participation in mining and oil sands activities, to grow Canadian investments in India’s energy infrastructure and further technical collaboration in the areas of clean energy technologies, including solar, wind, power transmission and carbon capture and storage. Canada and India will also work together to enhance skill development and share knowledge through university collaboration to accelerate the adoption of clean energy technologies.
“Canada’s growing energy relationship with India is helping create jobs and long-term prosperity for both of our countries. We stand ready to expand our strategic partnership through greater cooperation based on our complementarity of energy interests,” Rickford said.
