INDIA STEPS UP PUSH TO HIKE NATURAL GAS USE, END FLARING

India is pressing efforts to step up utilization of natural gas, a resource it continues to waste to a significant degree through flaring. Its push to end flaring will coincide with plans to boost oil production. Those efforts come as the country grapples with a lagging economy dragged down further by a sharply higher oil import bill in the wake of the Persian Gulf crisis and set against a backdrop of continuing political turmoil.