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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© 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'! 

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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

A visit to Metafuels SAF 'Aerobrew' lab and pilot plant

(Left to right: Leigh Hackett, Chairman of Metafuels, Marco Ranocchiari, Leader of Energy Systems Integration platform, Paul Scherrer Institute, Gaurav Sharma, Energy Analyst, Oilholics Synonymous, Saurabh Kapoor, CEO of Metafuels at the Aerobrew pilot plant and laboratory.)

Last month, the Oilholic headed out to the Paul Scherrer Institute in Würenlingen, Switzerland, to visit a laboratory and pilot site run by start-up firm Metafuels. It's attempting something that's a bit different in the sustainable aviation fuels space by producing its fuel via a methanol-to-jet fuel process. 

For context, you'd mostly find that e-sustainable aviation fuels or e-SAFs start-ups (i.e. those deploying renewable energy to produce synthetic fuel), do so by deploying the Fischer-Tropsch process. It involves sequential chemical reactions that convert a carbon monoxide and hydrogen mix, or synthetic gas ("syngas") into liquid hydrocarbons. 

But the team at Mefafuels led by two experts from the carbon capture and storage sphere - CEO Saurabh Kapoor and Chairman Leigh Hackett - is attempting something no other start-up known to yours truly is currently doing by viably deploying methanol synthesis to produce their SAF. 

Via their chosen method, methanol is synthesised from carbon monoxide and hydrogen at high pressure using catalysts made up of copper and zinc oxide. This too is a long-established process. But only recently have petrochemists managed to create pathways and additional steps for synthesising longer-chain hydrocarbons such as butylene, ethylene, propylene, and ultimately kerosene / jet fuel. 

Kapoor, Hackett, and a third co-founder Ulrich Koss, along with a team of a dozen people, believe they have come up with a methanol-to-jet fuel process that makes their e-SAF "economically viable" with fewer unwanted by-products and less waste compared to the routinely deployed Fischer-Tropsch process. 

In their laboratory, Metafuels demonstrated to the Oilholic that the synthesis works as they intend it to, and with the desired efficiency, to produce a jet fuel they've trademarked with a rather catchy name - Aerobrew. (See right)

Several members of the team, including Kapoor and Hackett, as well as designated officials from the Paul Scherrer Institute led by Marco Ranocchiari, spent an entire day with The Oilholic, explaining and demonstrating the viable path to upscaling their Aerobrew. 

Moving beyond the lab, Metafuels' demonstration plant with a production capacity of 50 litres is nearly complete which this blogger was also given a kind tour of. The plant will help Metafuels work on concepts for producing Aerobrew on a much larger scale. 

And speaking of scaling up the process, here's yours truly's feature on Metafuels for Forbes, which touches on the firm's plans for commercialising Aerobrew. The first step of this would an industrial-scale commercial plant with a capacity of 5000 litres, or hundred-times that of the pilot plant by 2028. 

The anticipated cost of production of 5,000 litres of Metafuels' e-SAF will likely be around 50% lower and the yield around 80% higher, according to the company. This is massive if achieved on a commercial scale. 

While The Oilholic can personally testify that Metafuels' offer is what it says on the tin, or shall we say an eagerly-awaited barrel of Aerobrew - the start-up is neither short of belief nor backers. 

Speaking of the latter, it has raised $22 million so far in funding via a diverse set of venture capital funds. 

At the time of writing, these include Celsius Industries, RockCreek, Fortescue Energy Ventures, Verve Ventures, Energy Impact Partners and Contrarian Ventures, as well as the Swiss Federal Office of Energy. The future looks promising for both Metafuels, and the demand for SAFs, especially in European aviation markets. 

So, it will be interesting to see where this goes, and the Oilholic intends to keep you posted when / where possible. With those final thoughts, it's time take your leave. More musings to follow 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: The Oilholic with the Metafuels team at Aerobrew lab as captioned. Photo II: Metafuels SAF Aerobrew. Photo III: The Oilholic with the Metafuels team at Paul Scherrer Institute, Switzerland. © Gaurav Sharma, December 18, 2024. 

Speaking and moderating at India Energy Week 2025

Delighted to announce that yours truly will be moderating and speaking at India Energy Week 2025 due to be held in New Delhi, India from February 11 to 14, 2025. This global energy event aims to unite over 700+ exhibitors, 70,000+ energy professionals and 500+ speakers from across the globe. It will offer invaluable insights, thought leadership, foster collaboration among key stakeholders and accelerate progress on the sustainable energy agenda. 

Explore the event's groundbreaking agenda and register as a delegate here. 

Looking forward to the deliberations, meeting thought leaders and friends. Join, if you can, for some fantastic industry exchanges and networking in New Delhi.

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. Digital event banner courtesy of dmgevents, 2025.

"Drill Baby, Drill!" (Again)

What can only be described as the greatest political comeback in history was completed on Monday by Donald J. Trump as he returned to the White House as the 47th President of the United States. 

Destroying all premature political obituaries about him and opponents of descriptions, the Trump 2.0 era began with a familiar cry of "drill baby, drill" from the President, among other things. 

Drill the Americans will, and already are, pumping north of 13 million barrels per day of crude oil. Here's The Oilholic's Forbes piece on the day's 'crude' developments and how the President wants to tap into America's "liquid gold" to usher in a "a new golden era" for the country. 

As for the oil price itself, this blogger stands by what one told Reuters earlier during the day's trading session - the Trump administration will most likely go after Iran and Venezuela, with heightened sanctions on Russia already priced in oil market. 

This will likely keep the Brent front-month futures contract around $80 per barrel. However, the direction of travel from there will be dictated by emerging Trump policies, non-OPEC production, international trade wars (or not) and China's economy. 

That's all for the moment folks. Keep reading, keep it here, keep it 'crude'! 

To follow The Oilholic on Twitter click here.

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To email: journalist_gsharma@yahoo.co.uk  

© Gaurav Sharma 2025. Photo: US flag. © DWilliam / Pixabay, 2015.