The Indian government these days is paying lot of attention to the conservation of petroleum products in view of the need to reduce ever increasing gap between demand for and indigenous supply of crude oil and petroleum products.

In the mechanised and the fast-moving world of today, the consumption of petroleum products has become an important yardstick of a country's prosperity.

Despite the discovery of new sources of unconventional energy, petroleum remains the primary energy source in India, and even more so, all over the world. The consumption of petroleum in the world, which started as a few tonnes a year around 140 years ago, has reached over 3000 million metric tonnes (MMT) per year!

Even in India, it is increasing at a very steep rate from 3.5 MMT in 1950-51 to 74.7 MMT in 1995-96. This is expected to reach 130 MMT in 2001-2002 and 175 MMT in 2006-2007.

Out of the known reserves, only a part may be technically and economically feasible to explore. This fact, coupled with the present and expected consumption rates, implies that these reserves may not last beyond the next 30 years.

For India, the situation could be even more difficult. Given our limited reserves, our present known stocks may not last even 10 years at the current consumption rate. Our present indigenous production is only 30.86 MMT and is less than 50 percent of our annual requirement.

Therefore, the need of the hour is to conserve petroleum by its judicious use, substituting it by other resources wherever feasible and restricting its use only to the essential needs.

Petroleum conservation becomes our joint responsibility -- be it the industries, individual citizens, organisations, oil companies or the government. Each one of us has specific and significant role to play.

Strategies for promoting oil conservation

The Indian government has initiated various steps to promote conservation of petroleum products in the transport, industrial, agricultural and domestic sectors.

These include adoption of measures and practices, which are conducive to increase fuel efficiency and training programme in the transport sector; modernisation of boilers, furnaces and other oil operated equipments with efficient ones.

It also includes promotion of fuel efficient practices and equipment in the industrial sector; standardisation of fuel efficient irrigation pump-sets and rectification of existing pump-sets to make them more energy efficient in the agricultural sector and development as well as promotion of the use of fuel efficient equipment and appliances like kerosene and LPG stoves in the household sector.