New Delhi: India’s energy imports from the United States have grown by five times in just three years, said US President Donald Trump while outlining his vision for expanding bilateral trade relations as trade deal remained elusive during his maiden India visit.
“Since I took office, U.S. exports to India are up nearly 60 per cent and exports of high-quality American energy have grown by thank you very much 500 per cent,” President Trump said in a joint statement after his meeting with Prime Minister Modi in Hyderabad House on Tuesday.
“That’s great,” said the US leader, “As India grows, so do its energy needs.”
During the first day of President Trump’s India visit, US energy giant ExxonMobil also signed an agreement to improve India’s natural gas distribution network.
The country has embarked on a major drive to improve the supply of natural gas (CNG) for vehicles and as a cooking fuel (PNG) in major cities including national capital Delhi and nearby cities.
India plans to invest Rs 1.2 lakh crore in developing its city gas distribution network in the next 10 years with the aim to provide natural gas (CNG & PNG) in 300 cities of the country by 2030.
“Yesterday, ExxonMobil signed a deal to improve India’s natural gas distribution network so that the U.S. can export even more LNG to India,” said President Trump.
Alex Volkov, Chairman of ExxonMobil’s LNG Market Development, and Jillian Evanko, CEO of Chart Energy and Chemicals accompanied President Trump in his maiden India visit as both the countries have been working to expand their cooperation in the field of energy.
“That’s a big deal, Alex, right? Can you handle it? I think so, right?” President Trump asked ExxonMobil’s Alex Volkov who was present with him in Hyderabad House.
"It’s great," he said while praising the deal between the two countries in the energy sector.
Read more: Will oil save the day for Indo-US trade relations
As reported earlier by ETV Bharat, expanding cooperation in the energy sector was key to reducing the trade gap between the US and India.
In 2018, the two-way trade between the two countries was more than $142 billion, while India exported goods and services worth $84 billion, its import from the US has been estimated at $58.7 billion, leaving a trade deficit of $25 billion, prompting President Trump to complain that high tariffs in India has hit the country very hard for several years.
While explaining the possible areas of Indo-US cooperation, former Petroleum Secretary SC Tripathi had told ETV Bharat that US Crude Oil was working out to be cheaper by $3-4 than the North Brent Crude imported by India and buying crude oil in reasonable quantities made commercial sense for the country.
“And, the US gas prices are very cheap at this point of time so there is a possibility of buying LNG from the USA,” he said.
(Article by Senior Journalist Krishnanand Tripathi)
