Shaktikanta Das flags need to cut India's oil import dependence, cites Rs 84,000-crore offshore push

India needs to reduce its dependence on imported oil and gas, Principal Secretary to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Shaktikanta Das, said on Tuesday, highlighting the government’s Rs 84,000-crore Samudra Manthan scheme as part of efforts to boost domestic hydrocarbon exploration and production.

Addressing the launch of the India and the Emerging Economic Order Forum (IEOF) in New Delhi, Das said India remained “highly dependent on imported oil and gas” and needed to reduce this import dependence.

“To achieve this, the Samudra Manthan, that is the national offshore exploration in deep waters, was approved in July 2026 with a Phase 1 outlay of Rs 84,000 crore for up to the financial year 2030-31. This will provide a strong impetus to hydrocarbon exploration and production,” he said.

The Union Cabinet had in July approved the Samudra Manthan, National Offshore Exploration Scheme with an outlay of Rs 84,084 crore through 2030-31.

The scheme is aimed at accelerating exploration and production in deep-sea and ultra-deep-sea areas, strengthening domestic hydrocarbon output, and reducing dependence on imported energy. The government expects the programme to catalyse reserve accretion of more than 600 million tonnes of oil and oil-equivalent gas.

Das highlighted Samudra Manthan as one of three areas of ongoing reform that could offer lessons for the Global South. The other two were India’s space sector and nuclear energy.

On space, Das said the Space Policy 2023 had opened the entire space value chain to private participation, innovation and investment, covering areas including satellite manufacturing, launch services and downstream applications. He also pointed to the launch of Vikram-1, describing it as India’s first privately developed orbital rocket.

On nuclear energy, Das said the government had set a target of achieving 100 GW of nuclear power generation capacity by 2047, as part of a broader effort to expand nuclear energy in the country’s power mix and support its net-zero target for 2070. He also highlighted the first criticality of the indigenously designed prototype fast breeder reactor at Kalpakkam in Tamil Nadu in April 2026.

Das said India’s broader economic strategy was centred on macroeconomic and financial stability, structural reforms, infrastructure creation, industrial development, and greater global integration.

He said India had recorded average annual real GDP growth of 7.9% between 2021-22 and 2025-26, while the economy grew 7.8% in the first quarter of the current financial year.

Against a backdrop of geopolitical tensions, trade-policy uncertainty and energy-price pressures, Das said India’s experience in areas such as energy, space, and nuclear power could provide lessons for other countries in the Global South.