Union Minister of Petroleum & Natural Gas and Steel Dharmendra Pradhan today inaugurated the India Pavilion at the Abu Dhabi International Petroleum Exhibition and Conference (ADIPEC). The India Pavilion has been set up by 9 Indian Oil & Gas companies from the upstream, midstream, downstream and engineering segments, alongwith Federation of Indian Petroleum Industry (FIPI), Directorate General of Hydrocarbons (DGH) and Confederation of Indian Industry (CII).Inaugurating the exhibition, Shri Pradhan saidIndia has a huge appetite for energy, and will be a driver of global energy demand in coming decades.In fact, oil and gas would continue to play a critical role in meeting our energy requirement, in coming two decades even as we adapt renewable energy. He said “Our focus is to attract global investments into the oil and gas sector, as India would invest 100 billion dollars by 2024 in refining, pipelines and gas terminals. There is no better place to invest if you are in the business of energy. Political stability, predictable policies and a huge diverse market make India an attractive investment destination for global investors.We have recently liberalized the entry norms for fuel retailing which has paved way for entry of new players in the fuel retailing space and enhancing competition.”At the ADIPEC inaugural global discussion in Abu Dhabi,Shri Pradhan said that We are working to make PM Modi’s vision to make India a gas based economy and working for a more cleaner and greener environment. “For this we will be working on investing in gas based infrastructure like increase in CGD and PNG network and gas based industries.” He said thatGlobal energy transition is driven by Asia becoming the centre of energy consumption, greater availability of LNG, greater promise of energy independence through renewables including solar and wind energy, emergence of US a leading hydrocarbons exporter and the urgency to meet COP 21 Paris climate commitments.