In its ‘World Energy Outlook,’ the International Energy Agency (IEA) has projected that India will turn out to be the world’s third major net oil importer before 2025. The report also highlighted the following:

- India’s primary energy demand will be increased over two-folds by 2030. The demand will grow at an average of 3.6% annually because of strong economic growth. Electricity generation will be the answer for much of the increase.

- India will beat Japan to turn into the world’s third biggest net oil importer before 2025. A large amount of India’s incremental energy requirements to 2030 will have to be imported.

- In 2010, India’s net oil imports will increase to 6 million barrels per day.

- The electricity generation capacity (most of it coal fired) will increase three times by 2030.

- From 62% in 2005, around 96% of the Indian population will have access to electricity by 2030.

- Coal will remain the vital fuel and its use will be increased thrice by 2030.

- There will be a seven-fold increase in coal imports that reached to 28% in 2030 from 12% in 2005.

- India’s gas productivity will climb between 2020 and 2030, and then drop. LNG imports will face up a growing need.

- From 2006 to 2030, India will require $1.25 trillion in energy infrastructure.

However, Chinese functionaries showed aggression against IEA report that believed China would soon become the world’s top energy user and CO2 emitter. The functionaries called it one-sided and politically shortsighted.

The IEA report also said that China would surpass US as the top energy user soon after 2010, and this year is set to be the largest emitter of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide.

Wang Siqiang, vice-director of the country’s energy office stated that the report was based on wrong assumptions and at odds with some of Beijing’s own forecasts.

"Some of the assumptions are quite subjective," Wang told a news conference to launch the report in China.

"I hope that for future analyses they could set up different assumptions and make it closer to reality," he said, adding that research in the energy area should be "based on facts".

"Actions, decisions should be taken now," IEA executive director Nobuo Tanaka said on Friday. "The primary scarcity facing the planet is not natural resources, or money, but time."