IEW 2026 Days I & II: A $500bn investment opportunity?

India Energy Week 2026 got underway in Goa, India, on Tuesday with yours truly in attendance to hear the Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi, who declared the event open via video-link and noted that the energy sector was at the heart of his country's aspiration's for the future. 

India's burgeoning economy needs energy, and his government is working overtime to ensure security of supply of all sources traditional and renewable. The move holds over $500 in billion investment opportunities, according to the PM. 

It certainly seems that way with more than 75,000 attendees from over 120 countries in attendance and 700-plus exhibitors here in Goa. Making a pitch for his nation, PM Modi urged them to "Make in India, Innovate in India, Scale with India, and Invest in India." 

Later on in the opening morning's proceedings, India's Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas, Hardeep Singh Puri emphasised on the diversity of supply with over 40-plus crude oil suppliers. 

He also noted: "India's rapid expansion of LPG coverage, clean cooking access and diversified energy mix reflect the country's commitment to inclusive growth and equitable energy access." 

Additionally, it was widely acknowledged on the first day of India Energy Week that the country remains on track to meeting its 500GW renewable energy capacity target for 2030. The opening day also heard market observations of ADNOC Group CEO Dr Sultan Al Jaber in his keynote address to the event.  

"From air conditioning to AI, exponential growth in energy demand will require all forms of energy. Oil demand will remain over 100 million barrels per day for a good few decades yet. As the world third's largest consumer of oil and power, India is an unquestionable driver of global demand that energy sector players simply cannot ignore," Dr Al Jaber told India Energy Week delegates. 

As the event's exhibition floors opened their doors and the dialogues began in earnest, the Oilholic also began his flurry of speaking engagements. 

This kick-started with a fireside chat on day one with Mohsin Hamed Al Hadhrami, Undersecretary, Ministry of Energy & Minerals, Oman on his country's energy sector potential, minerals industry and how it can be a strategic trading partner for India and indeed the world (See above left). 

With 30-odd insightful conversations successfully negotiated on day one, Wednesday - day two - brought a similar number of panels and dialogues to the fore, with yours truly keeping busy with three sessions of his own. 

The first of these was a fireside chat with Tim Hodgson, Minister of Energy and Natural Resources, Canada, who set out his country's stall for a reset and reboot of relations with India drawing a line under the diplomatic spats of 2023. Hodgson outlined an array of commodities Canada could reliably supply to India, not just oil and natural gas, and that a state visit to the country by Prime Minister Mark Carney was imminent. (See above right)

Following the fireside, yours truly hosted two unique panels. The first of these, was titled 'Global South clean energy solidarity: powering South-South cooperation for a shared future.' 

The panellists included Prof. Elmutasim Ibrahim Ahmed Ali, Minister of Energy and Petroleum, Republic of Sudan, Ralph Regenvanu, Minister of Climate Change Adaptation, Meteorology and Geo-Hazards, Energy, Environment and Disaster Management of Vanuatu, and Indra Mani Pandey, Secretary General, BIMSTEC (see left).

We discussed strategic energy solidarity, and how policymakers can empower the Global South’s geopolitical voice in the evolving multi-polar world order, reflective of the rising economic weight behind its emerging and diverse markets.

The second of the Oilholic's panels touched on establishing global models for city gas distribution (CGD) networks, with panellists Suresh Manglani, Executive Director and CEO, Adani Total Gas Limited, Goutom Chakraborty, CEO, GAIL Gas Limited, Kamal Kishore Chatiwal, MD, Indraprastha Gas Limited, Abhilesh Gupta, MD and CEO, THINK Gas, and Sandeep Jain, Former Executive Director, Gas, Indian Oil Corporation Limited (See right), 

As CGD markets are projected to more than double in size to $30 billion in the coming decade, we discussed which strategic models, collaborations and technologies will be key to delivering the next phase of international development. Well that's all for now folks. As the second half of India Energy Week 2026 approaches, there's more to follow. Keep reading, keep it here, keep it 'crude'! 

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To email: journalist_gsharma@yahoo.co.uk  

© Gaurav Sharma, January 2026. Photo I: Energy Analyst Gaurav Sharma at India Energy Week 2026 in Goa, India. Photo II: India's Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas Hardeep Singh Puri speaks at India Energy Week 2026. Photo III: Energy Analyst Gaurav Sharma hosts India Energy Week 2026 session with Mohsin Hamed Al Hadhrami, Undersecretary, Ministry of Energy & Minerals, Oman. Photo IV: Energy Analyst Gaurav Sharma hosts India Energy Week 2026 session with Tim Hodgson, Minister of Energy And Natural Resources, Canada. Photos V & VI: India Energy Week panels hosted by Energy Analyst Gaurav Sharma. © Photos I & II: Gaurav Sharma, January 2026. © Photo III: Sammy Ahmed, KPMG. © Photos IV, V & VI: India Energy Week / dmgevents, January 2026.

India Energy Week sessions to be hosted by yours truly

As India Energy Week 2026 approaches, the Oilholic is looking forward to moderating panels and fireside chats at the event being held in Goa, India from Jan 27 to 30, covering vital topics across the international energy sphere. It will bring together global leaders, corporate visionaries and technical experts. Here are the detail's of yours truly's sessions:

Wednesday, January 28, The Addition Stage, MDF Building, ONGC ATI, Goa @ 12:00pm

From reset to results: translating Canada–India political momentum into a priority partnership for long-term energy and critical minerals cooperation

• A fireside chat under the event's Energy Talks programme with Hon. Timothy Hodgson, Minister of Energy and Natural Resources, Government of Canada.

Wednesday, January 28, The Transition Stage, Convention Centre, ONGC ATI, Goa @ 10:30am

Global South clean energy solidarity: Powering South-South cooperation for a shared future

With panellists:

• H.E. Prof. Elmutasim Ibrahim Ahmed Ali, Minister of Energy and Petroleum, Republic of Sudan
• H.E. Ralph Regenvanu, Minister of Climate Change Adaptation, Meteorology and Geo-Hazards, Energy, Environment and Disaster Management, Vanuatu
• H.E. Dr. Eng. Sultan Welle Ahmed, State Minister of Energy, Ministry of Water and Energy, Ethiopia
• H.E. Indra Mani Pandey, Secretary General, The BIMSTEC Secretariat

Wednesday, January 28, The Resilience Stage, Convention Centre, ONGC ATI, Goa @ 13:40pm IST

Establishing global models for City Gas Distribution (CGD) networks: building clean, secure and equitable gas-based economies

With panellists:

• Suresh P Manglani, Executive Director and CEO, Adani Total Gas
• Goutom Chakraborty, CEO, GAIL Gas Limited
• Kamal Kishore Chatiwal, MD, Indraprastha Gas Limited
• Abhilesh Gupta, MD & CEO, THINK Gas
• Sandeep Jain, Former Executive Director, Gas, Indian Oil Corporation Limited

Thursday, January 29, The Resilience Stage, Convention Centre, ONGC ATI @ 16:30pm IST

Coal’s evolving role in a secure energy mix: charting a balanced and pragmatic approach

With panellists:

• Shri Vikram Dev Dutt, Secretary, Ministry of Coal - Official, Government of India
• Kyle Haustveit, P.E., Assistant Secretary for Hydrocarbons and Geothermal Energy, U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)
• B. Sairam, Chairman-cum-MD, Coal India Limited

Explore the event's exciting agenda here, and be sure to register here. 

The Oilholic is excited to play his part in the deliberations on pathways towards secure, inclusive, and affordable energy systems, tackling critical challenges such as decarbonisation, investment security and industrial transformation.

Looking forward to meeting old friends and making new ones! See you in Goa, if you can make it! More to follow. Keep reading, keep it here, keep it 'crude'! 

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To email: journalist_gsharma@yahoo.co.uk  

© Gaurav Sharma, January 2026. Photo: IEW 2026 speaker profile of energy analyst Gaurav Sharma © India Energy Week / dmgevents, January 2026.

Speaking and moderating at India Energy Week 2026

Delighted to announce that yours truly will be moderating and speaking at India Energy Week 2026 due to be held in Goa, India, from January 27 to 30. This global energy event is expected to welcome participants from 120+ countries. 

Last year's edition attracted over 68,000 participants, 570 exhibitors, 5,400 conference delegates, and hosted 100 conference sessions featuring 540+ global speakers, present company included. Explore the 2026 edition's wide-ranging agenda here. 

Hosted under the patronage of the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, Government of India and co-organised by the Federation of Indian Petroleum Industry (FIPI) and dmg events, India Energy Week will drive collaboration across the entire energy community and reinforce its role among the world’s most influential global energy dialogue platforms.

The week-long proceedings will offer invaluable insights, thought leadership, foster collaboration among key stakeholders and accelerate progress on the sustainable energy agenda. The Oilholic is excited to play his part in the deliberations. To attend the event, register as a delegate here.

Looking forward to meeting old friends and making new ones! See you in Goa, if you can make it! More to follow. Keep reading, keep it here, keep it 'crude'! 

To follow The Oilholic on Twitter click here.

To follow The Oilholic on Forbes click here.

To follow The Oilholic on Energy Connects click here.

To email: journalist_gsharma@yahoo.co.uk  

© Gaurav Sharma, January 2026. Photo: IEW 2026 speaker profile of energy analyst Gaurav Sharma © India Energy Week / dmgevents, January 2026.

Media missives from India Energy Week 2025

With India Energy Week 2025 drawing to a close on February 14, the Oilholic capped a fascinating and engaging week out in Delhi by hosting pivotal industry panel sessions at the event on subjects ranging from bridging the energy transition's investment gaps to harnessing the power of shale oil and gas.

All blog entries for India Energy Week may be found here. Yours truly also provided insight to Energy Connects ahead of the event as detailed below: 

• India's oil demand growth offers abundant opportunities for global suppliers, February 4, 2025.

And here are selected Forbes copies in chronological order based on soundbites and insight from the event. 

• Is India’s Energy Sector Heading For A Big Investment Boom? January 28, 2024
• India’s Modi Renews Pledge Of 500 GW Green Energy Capacity By 2030, February 12, 2024
• Tough But Doable? Financing Net Zero May Require $4 Trillion By 2050, February 13, 2024
• India Won’t Clobber Consumers To Meet Climate Targets, Says Oil Minister, February 13, 2024

And that's a wrap for this year's India Energy Week. Keep reading, keep it here, keep it 'crude'! 

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To email: journalist_gsharma@yahoo.co.uk  

© Gaurav Sharma 2025. Photo: Gaurav Sharma (far left)hosts a panel at India Energy Week 2025 © dmgevents, February 2025. 

IEW 2025 Days III & IV: India's quest for a gas economy

Over the course of Thursday and Friday - days III & IV - of India Energy Week 2025 that put us on the home stretch of the global event, conversations turned more meaningfully towards the Indian government's assertion of placing a 'gas economy' at the heart of its march to net zero by 2070. 

What many in the industry choose to describe as a 'bridging fuel', is a medium the Indian government, and indeed many others, appear comfortable in embracing to wean them off coal and help with a shift to more sustainable sources. 

In India's case, the country's Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas Hardeep Singh Puri is leading the charge personally. Yours truly had the pleasure of reconnecting with the Minister and interviewing him for Forbes to discuss a host of energy related issues. Have a read here if you wish. 

In its collaborative transformation of the energy mix, the current Indian government is carefully examining the US shale revolution. Shale has already greatly changed the rules of international oil and gas trade and geopolitics, with the US making a significant shift from conventional to non-conventional oil and gas fields.

To this effect, the Oilholic hosted a Day III session titled "Harnessing the force of shale oil and gas in building future global energy systems."

Eminent panellists included Barnali Barua Tokhi, MD, Bharat PetroResources Ltd, Rahul Patel, MD and CEO, Transcontinental Energy Services, Trailukya Borgohain, Director (Operations), Oil India Ltd. 

The panel explored emerging concepts in exploration, extraction and distribution that have triggered a global shift in how untapped shale oil and gas resources are used, helping to fill energy supply gaps and change market dynamics. 

As it appears, the world’s remaining proven hydrocarbon reserves, 70% of oil and 45% of gas are considered unconventional. So, how they are tapped matter greatly. The panellists discussed how technological advances have now made many significant reservoirs of recoverable shale resources available to develop in multiple locations worldwide.

As the event neared its close on Day IV, focus also turned to STEM talent and process efficiencies achieved by the industry by deploying industrial AI. And, of course, to the deals that rained at the event as the great and the good of the global energy world queued up to ink agreements in India over the course of the week. 

Signature deals, among several moves, included BP's technical partnerships with EIL and ONGC, BPCL's agreement with Petrobras for 6 million barrels worth of exports to India, and, IOCL and ADNOC's long-term agreement for LNG up to 1.2 mmtpa from 2026 for 14 years.

And here are yours truly's thoughts via Forbes, based on conversations here, on climate finance and the trillions required if the world is to meet its net zero emissions targets. 

Finally, before bidding goodbye to Delhi, the Oilholic also took time out from the hustle and bustle of the conference to provide some analysis, and sum up the goings-on at the event to colleagues at Energy Connects. Watch this space when the good folks at EC publish the interview. 

It's been an immense pleasure and a privilege to attend and speak at India Energy Week for the very first time. But its now time to bid goodbye to India until next year. More thoughts soon. Keep reading, keep it here, keep it 'crude'! 

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To email: journalist_gsharma@yahoo.co.uk  

© Gaurav Sharma 2025. Photo I: India Energy Week 2025. Photo II: Gaurav Sharma at IEW 2025. Photo III: Gaurav Sharma (left) at the Energy Connects studio in conversation with the media outlet's Editor-in-chief Chiranjib Sengupta at IEW 2025. © Gaurav Sharma 2025.

IEW 2025 Days I & II: Reimagining the future of energy

The first two days of India Energy Week or IEW 2025 have whizzed by with several aspects of the event's core theme - reimagining the future of energy in India and the world - discussed widely at various panel sessions and forums. 

The event was inaugurated on Tuesday by the country's Prime Minister Narendra Modi who noted in his opening remarks that India's wider energy sector ambitions would depend on "key five pillars" - namely "resource availability, a skilled workforce, economic strength, political stability, and strategic geography."

He also reiterated his pledge of more than doubling India's current renewable energy capacity from its current level to 500GW by 2030. Here's The Oilholic's full report for Forbes on the opening remarks. 

Following the Prime Minister's keynote, day I of the event also saw India's Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas Hardeep Singh Puri note that the world's energy transition journey can never be a straight cut exercise in resource replacement; rather a nuanced resource utilisation journey reliant on diverse supply chains banking on both  renewable and traditional sources. 

The event also saw several energy ministers from Brazil to Qatar hobnob with their counterparts and delegates on the first day, indicative of the interest in India's energy sector. 

Among them, rather curiously, was UK's eco-zealot minister Ed Miliband who attempted to portray to a foreign audience that he actually cared about the North Sea calling his country a "proud oil and gas producer." But - with his policy actions implying the exact opposite - was widely and rightly ridiculed back home. 

The event's exhibition floor also opened its doors with over 70,000 visitors expected here over the course of the week. Two themes instantly caught this blogger's eye - "Make In India" pegged to domestic manufacturing and Green Hydrogen, an admirable firm favourite of Minister Puri. 

Yours truly also kicked into gear on Day II by moderating a leadership panel session titled "Bridging the energy transition's investment gaps." 

Eminent panelists included Bhupinder Singh Bhalla, Former Secretary of Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, Roberto Bocca, Head, Centre for Energy and Minerals, World Economic Forum, Hitesh Vaid, CFO of Cairn Oil and Gas, and Katan Hirachand, Chief Executive & Chief Country Officer - India, Societe Generale. (See below right for details, click on image to enlarge)

It was a fascinating discussion on climate finance acknowledging the complexities and opportunities of the energy transition and the mammoth task of underpinning global action by investment dollars,  trillions of which may be required according to some. Securing these would be the challenge of our age. 

Elsewhere on day II, other sessions touched on the reliable role of gas in the energy mix and discussed the familiar topic of technology as an efficiency enabler and facilitator of faster decarbonisation. 

Various aspects of India's energy ecosystem, its policy framework and investment drive were also examined, and how the global south could perhaps take some learnings from the country's approach over the last decade. That's all for now folks. There's plenty more to come from IEW 2025. So keep reading, keep it here, keep it 'crude'! 

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To email: journalist_gsharma@yahoo.co.uk  

© Gaurav Sharma 2025. Photo I: Yashobhoomi Convention Centre, Delhi, India - the venue of IEW 2025. Photo II: 'Make In India' display at the IEW 2025 exhibition. Photo III: Gaurav Sharma at the Indian government's green hydrogen booth. © Gaurav Sharma 2025. Photo IV: Detail of 'Bridging the energy transition's investment gap.' (Courtesy: dmgevents)

Getting ready for India Energy Week 2025

The Oilholic is delighted to be back in Delhi ahead of India Energy Week 2025 as the world's second-largest of crude oil importer and a leader in renewables opens its doors to the global energy community. 

The week-long event - being held from Feb 11 to 14, 2025 - will showcase India's energy sector and its potential. Yours truly would be speaking and moderating sessions at the event as advised last month.

The venue for India Energy Week happens to be the 100,000 square feet Yashobhoomi Convention Centre near the Indian capital's Indira Gandhi International airport. If you have been out and about town as this blogger has, you can't really miss the event's signage and the buzz created around it from fuel forecourts to shopping malls, transport terminals to state highways leading in to town. 

For background on India's energy sector, should you need it, here are this blogger's thoughts on investment opportunities in the Indian energy sector via a piece on Forbes, and its rising oil demand via a market assessment for Energy Connects. 

Looking forward to the deliberations, meeting thought leaders and friends over an exciting few days in the Indian capital. Join, if you can, for some fantastic industry exchanges and networking in New Delhi. More soon from here. But for now keep reading, keep it here, keep it 'crude'! 

To follow The Oilholic on Twitter click here.

To follow The Oilholic on Forbes click here.

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To email: journalist_gsharma@yahoo.co.uk  

© Gaurav Sharma 2025. Photo: Gaurav Sharma in front of India Energy Week 2025 signage in New Delhi, India.© Gaurav Sharma 2025