As the dawn of “Asia’s Century” is well and truly underway, surely this creates a number of potential opportunities for Scotland and the UK as Brexit opens up a new world of opportunity and untapped potential.
With Scotland’s GDP growing less than that of its UK counterparts the need to build relationships beyond the single market is essential. History tells us that this comes easily to us Scots – SDI’s GlobalScot network is testament to that.
While China’s potential is well documented, it is the emergence of India will have a significant and transformative impact on the global energy sector.
This energy hungry market wishes to boost domestic supply of energy resources, mainly through coal, natural gas and renewables. According to IEA figures, up to $190bn will be spent on upstream oil and gas E&P activities in the next 25 years and almost $310bn in midstream and downstream oil and gas investments.
With recognition of this potential at the highest level, the Government has significantly improved the licensing regime and introduced deregulation for gas and diesel prices with a particular focus on encouraging foreign investment particularly for small pools and a boost for onshore shale plays. Equally, to appreciate India’s thirst for energy independence, installed renewable capacity (excluding large hydroelectric) has increased from less than 10GW in 2007 to a massive 44GW (and growing) today..
India is hungry for domestic supplies of energy and our supply chain includes multiple highly skilled oil and gas and wider energy companies, it’s a match made in heaven so you would think. It must be said that although there are no local content laws and relatively few restrictions to working in India, bureaucracy can prove incredibly frustrating for foreign firms and strong local supply chain and the Government’s own “Make in India” initiative ensure that barriers to entry are high.
However, “brand-Aberdeen” is strong in India, highlighted by Energy Minster Pradan’s recent visit to the city, and in areas like Small Pools, HP/HT and Downhole there is widespread recognition of the value our companies can bring to market. The recent Petrotech conference, for example, attracted a delegation of 17 organisations from Scotland, as part of an organised SDI mission of which Burness Paull was proud to be one.
To quote a popular Hindi saying, “Delhi bahut door hai…””, this literally means “Delhi is far away” and is used generally at the beginning of an endeavour to acknowledge that our goals and objectives may be some way off, that success will not be instant. I think that is perfectly apt, for those willing to commit to the country strategically and take the long view there will
be many opportunities to pursue and successes to be had. So perhaps Delhi won’t be so far away after all.
For more information visit www.burnesspaull.com.
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