India’s import opportunity trumps its upstream

International firms still see targeting India’s downstream demand as significantly more attractive than investing in its production, despite recent government reforms and efforts at promotion.

India’s energy demand will continue to grow for another 20-25 years and will include a “shift from dirty to clean fossil fuels” during the country’s low-carbon transition, Tarun Kapoor, secretary for India’s Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas, told a CeraWeek panel earlier this month. The demand growth means the “market will always be here” for international investors, says Kapoor. And India’s demand projections mean crude producers—anticipating a long-term decline in demand in developed countries—see India as a good market in which to embed themselves, says Emma Richards, senior oil and gas analyst at research firm Fitch Solutions. “[The] complexity of India’s overlapping bureauc