08 June 2009

GPPi Fellow publishes monograph “India’s Rise and the Global Politics of Energy Supply”

GPPi Fellow and University Lecturer in Comparative Politics, Oxford University, Ricardo Soares de Oliveira published a monograph entitled, “India’s Rise and the Global Politics of Energy Supply: Challenges for the Next Decade.” The piece was prepared for the eleventh Vasant J. Sheth Memorial Lecture in December 2008. 

The piece addresses one of the most important consequences of India’s near double-digit economic growth in recent years, the sharply escalating need for oil and natural gas imports. Soares de Oliveira warns that in coming to term with India’s new power the government in New Delhi will have to shoulder new responsibilities and sideline characteristics of its foreign policy ideas unsuited for today’s dynamic and rapidly changing world. As such, the piece examines four questions pertaining to India in the international political economy of hydrocarbons. First, the land and sea routes vital for supplying India with oil and gas and the complex relationship with both South Asian producers and pipelines as well as Middle Eastern actors in global energy. The second question looks at the ongoing domestic reform and the continuing internationalization of ONGC and other India corporations. The third question looks at whether India will lean towards a market-based solution characteristic of the industrial world members of the International Energy Agency or embrace the “strategic” mindset that prioritises equity acquisition by India oil companies or through state-to-state deals. The fourth and final question looks at whether India can be counted on as a progressive actor in the international economy of oil. 

Soares de Oliveira argues that challenges remain on all four fronts for India but the government is well placed to tackle them if it accepts their urgency. Above all, he warns Indian decision-makers from becoming overly complacent towards the tests posed by the country’s economic rise. Finally, Soares de Oliveira argues that despite the advances made by renewable energies and the nuclear option, hydrocarbons will continue to provide the lion’s share of our energy needs. How India faces up to these challenges will define not only India’s economic fortunes but the world’s as well.

To read the monograph please click here.

For more information please contact Ricardo Soares de Oliveira

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