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Our Bureau

New Delhi , Aug. 6

THE Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, said on Saturday that in the light of the continuing rise of international oil prices, India must diversify its energy supplies, manage energy resources more economically and pursue rational pricing policies.

"We have to ensure that we build up adequate energy security to insulate the economy from any future shock," Dr Singh said, while addressing the first review meeting of the inter-ministerial Energy Coordination Committee (ECC) here on Saturday.

The Prime Minister emphasised on the importance of tapping all sources of energy, including petroleum, natural gas, coal, biomass, solar, hydro and nuclear energy. He advised ministries to ensure that adequate investments are made, keeping in mind the expected growth in the demand arising out of the higher rate of economic growth and the modernisation, urbanisation and commercialisation of economic activity. Dr Singh said that India must invest in nuclear energy.

He instructed the Cabinet Secretary, Mr B. K. Chaturvedi, to resolve all pending inter-ministerial issues to increase the availability of gas and coal for power generation. He instructed the ministries concerned to ensure the close monitoring of all on-going projects so that energy supply from existing investments is increased to bridge the gap between demand and supply.

"Acquisition of equity oil and gas and equity coal overseas will be the focus for meeting the energy shortfall," said Mr Kirit S. Parikh, Member (Energy), Planning Commission, after the meeting.

The meeting discussed coal and gas shortage in the country and stressed on the acquisition of coal, oil and gas assets from abroad to meet the fuel shortage in the country. The Committee was set up last month to enable a systematic approach to policy formulation in the area of energy planning and security.

The Cabinet Secretary made a presentation on short and medium term measures for increasing fuel supply — gas and coal — for the power sector, while Mr Parikh made a presentation on the challenges and options of an integrated energy policy. Dr Anil Kakodkar, Secretary, Department of Atomic Energy, also stressed on the need for India to import uranium and invest in uranium mining to meet the requirements of nuclear power generation. He drew attention to the fact that the price of domestically mined uranium is four to five times that of imported uranium. Several participants complimented the Prime Minister for successfully concluding a deal with the US that would enable India to import uranium for nuclear power projects. The ECC discussed a strategy paper on the energy sector prepared by the Planning Commission and a paper on coal and gas availability for power generation prepared by the Cabinet Secretariat.

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