Oil Minister Dharmendra Pradhan will on Friday co-chair the second India-US Strategic Energy Partnership Ministerial meeting along with US Secretary of Energy Dan Brouillette as the two nations seek to bolster energy cooperation.

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The meeting was originally scheduled to be held in Washington in April this year but got postponed due to the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic.

The dialogue will now be held through video conferencing, official sources said.

The Government of India had in February 2018 elevated the India-US Energy Dialogue to a Strategic Energy Partnership (SEP). It was to be co-chaired by Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas from the Indian side and US Secretary of Energy from the American side.

The SEP was formally announced during the visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to the US in June 2017, and the first ministerial meeting was held in New Delhi on April 17, 2018 between Pradhan and the then US Secretary for Energy, Rick Perry.

Sources said the SEP has four primary pillars of cooperation -- oil and gas, power and energy efficiency, renewable energy, and sustainable growth. Each pillar is co-chaired at the joint secretary-level on the Indian side and Asst Under Secy/Dy Asst Under Secy-level on the US side.

Through the SEP, the US and India collectively seek to enhance energy security, expand energy and innovation linkages across the respective energy sectors, bolster strategic alignment, and facilitate increased industry and stakeholder engagement in the energy sector, they said.

The US-India Gas Task Force (GTF) was also set up under the umbrella of the US-India Strategic Energy Partnership as part of the oil and gas pillar with support.

Sources said it was established to develop innovative policy recommendations to the Government of India in support of its vision for natural gas in the economy of India, and seeks to advance the strategic and economic interests of both India and the US.

The GTF had identified three key themes that need to be addressed to expand natural gas use in India and trade with the United States -- natural gas pricing - markets and regulation, strengthening of gas infrastructure, and stimulating natural gas demand growth.

The second Ministerial SEP meeting will review the progress made since the first meeting and also take note of accomplishments and agree on priorities going forward in the energy sector, they added.

In the run-up to the meeting, Pradhan and Brouillette had on Wednesday co-chaired industry-level interaction, organized by the US-India Business Council (USIBC), an official statement said.

The minister had also separately chaired an industry-level interaction organized by the US-India Strategic Energy Partnership on Tuesday.

"During these interactions, Minister Pradhan invited the US companies and investors to engage and invest in India in new opportunities," the statement said.

He said that there have been a few collaborative efforts between Indian and American companies in this sector, but it is far below their potential.

Even during these challenging times, India and the US have been working in close collaboration, be it in stabilizing global energy markets or in collaborative efforts to address COVID-19, he said. "In today's turbulent world, one constant is - and always will be - the strength of our bilateral partnership."

Talking about the Strategic Energy Partnership, the minister said that cooperation in natural gas sector has been identified as a priority area, the statement said, adding that he also mentioned about several upcoming new opportunities in the field of LNG bunkering, LNG ISO container development, petrochemicals, bio-fuels, and compressed bio-gas in the Indian energy sector.

Pradhan also talked about the far-reaching changes and policy reforms underway in exploration and production sector in India.

He said India will see an investment of over USD 118 billion in oil and gas exploration as well as in setting up natural gas infrastructure, including development of gas supply and distribution networks, in the next five years as the country prepares to meet the needs of a fast-growing economy.

The minister invited greater participation from the US companies during the next oil and gas block bid rounds.

Describing the industry roundtables as timely, he said the deliberations here will provide us useful inputs from the industry perspective.