CRISIL Research believes that prices of crude oil, thermal coal and liquefied natural gas (LNG) will be under pressure in the long term because of structural shifts like surge in supplies, move to alternate fuel, and slowing demand. This is a huge blessing for India, since energy imports accounted for 36 per cent of its total imports last fiscal.

''Between fiscals 2009 and 2014, India's energy import bill surged at an average 14% annually to USD 161 billion. We now expect this to rise only 1.6% annually to USD 175 billion by 2019 because prices of the three commodities are forecast to decline. Subdued prices will also help curb oil subsidies,'' it said.

''In the last fifteen years, rising prices encouraged significant investments in the oil & gas and mining. Globally, investments in oil & gas exploration and production more than doubled to USD 5.7 trillion between 1998 and 2013, vis-a-vis the previous fifteen years. This led to reserve accretion increasing by 1.6 times to 626 billion barrels of oil equivalent over 1998-2013 period,'' said Mukesh Agarwal, president, CRISIL Research.

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