India's largest oil explorer, Oil & Natural Gas Corp., has announced plans to invest $12.1 billion by 2030. The state-owned drilling company, which produces more than half of India's oil and gas, will dramatically increase its renewable energy portfolio to 10,000 megawatts by 2030 from 189 megawatts at the end of March 2023. At a press conference in Mumbai, ONGC Chairman Arun Kumar Singh told the audience that the company's green spending would focus on ammonia production and other non-changing renewable energy sources.

India's demand for fossil fuels will continue to grow until 2040, but at the same time we must increase our efforts on green energy. We have to do this so that both worlds can coexist.

The company will not include the range 3 emissions of oil and gas it sells in these targets. Oil and gas companies have faced criticism from environmentalists and ngos for failing to include liability for Scope 3 emissions in their targets. ONGC plans to continue investing in fossil fuels, including through its overseas subsidiary ONGC Videsh, which is considering bidding for the Guyana block.

In its published results for the fiscal years July 2022-June 2023, the company announced eight oil discoveries, both onshore and offshore, for the full year. Its capital expenditure plan for the current fiscal year is $3.64 billion, almost all of it for exploration and development of oil and gas acreage.

India's energy transition

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has set a national goal for the country to achieve net zero emissions by 2070. India was the fourth largest CO2 emitter in 2021, with an increase of 10.5% compared to 2020.

IndianOil and Reliance Industries, another Indian oil giant, have also announced significant green energy investments. Reliance Industries seeks to focus its efforts on the Gigafactory and the Blue Hydrogen facility. IndianOil has set a series of targets, including 3GW of renewable energy and 600,000 tonnes of biofuels by 2025.

While IndianOil is committed to meeting India's exponential growth in energy demand, we are also determined to be the standard-bearer for India's green energy transition, IndianOil Chairman Shrikant Madhav Vaidya said in a statement. So we are expanding our green efforts with a clear focus and forward approach; We will consolidate our green assets under one umbrella to achieve better synergies.Editor/XingWentao