NEW DELHI – India’s new Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas, Hardeep Singh Puri, has invited foreign investors to participate in developing the country’s oil and gas sector, noting that "India’s demand for energy will continue to grow."

Puri was speaking at an investors’ meet yesterday at which he launched auctions for a round of 75 oil and gas discoveries in small fields comprising 32 contract areas.

These 75 fields have discovered resources of 230 million tonnes of oil, the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas said.

The auctions launched yesterday are known as Discovered Small Field (DSF) Bid Round-III. The Ministry said DSF Bid Round-III offers investment opportunities for companies in the oil and gas sector in the GCC area. The investors’ meet was held in a hybrid format.

Pointing out that energy is central to India’s trajectory of growth, the Minister said this is expected to be the primary driver of global energy demand in the coming decades. Puri, who is also India’s Minister of Housing and Urban Affairs, said that as urbanization increases, economic activities will speed up and demand for energy will go up.

"The energy sector will acquire dynamic of its own." He promised that the government is ready to partner with foreign investors and take remedial steps to overcome any hurdles they may face.

India’s Petroleum Secretary, Tarun Kapoor, said there are big opportunities in the Indian upstream sector for the oil and gas industry abroad. Kapoor said production from earlier rounds, DSF I and DSF II, has already started and that more will follow next year.

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