ABSTRACT
As has previously been pointed out in this book, fossil fuels are the source of most of India’s commercial and primary energy supplies. They are also not a resource the country is particularly well endowed with. Thus even as 90 per cent of India’s commercial energy comes from fossil fuel, domestic reserves of crude oil are suffi cient for only about eight years’ worth of current consumption (33 years at current production levels2). The situation is no different in the case of natural gas, where proven reserves stand at about 1100 billion cubic metres and would last for about 32 years at the current level of production3. Even with respect to coal, the most abundant energy source in India, if production continues to grow at fi ve per cent per annum as it is doing now, proven extractable reserves are estimated to last for only about 40 years.
