India to soon overtake China as oil demand driver; can be leader in green hydrogen: IEA chief

New Delhi: India will soon overtake China as the largest driver of global oil demand even as it has an opportunity to become a world leader in green hydrogen production, International Energy Agency (IEA) chief FatihBirol said Wednesday.A swelling population, which has likely already surpassed that of China, is driving demand in the world’s third-largest energy-consuming nation. Its transition from fossil fuels to cleaner sources is expected to lag other regions, but cheap electricity produced from renewable energy sources like solar energy can help transform the nation into a green hydrogen leader.

“India’s oil demand will grow. I think India will soon takeover from China as the largest driver of global oil demand growth,” Birol told on the sidelines of a G20 event here.This is primarily because China has seen faster adoption of electric vehicles, leading to a drop in petrol and diesel consumption.”One of the factors for the weakening of oil demand in China is rapid electrification of cars and buses,” he said.He hoped that demand in India will go down as electrification (vehicles run on batteries charged by electricity) picks up.EV sales in China nearly doubled to 6.1 million units in 2022 compared to 48,000 vehicles in India in the same period.