Oil Minister Hardeep Singh Puri Calls Upon OPEC To Make Crude Prices Affordable

New Delhi, Oct 4 (KNN) India’s Petroleum Minister Hardeep Singh Puri on Tuesday urged oil producers’ cartel OPEC (Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries) to “imbue a sense of pragmatism, balance and affordability in the oil markets”.

He highlighted the rise in crude oil prices due to production cuts by major oil producers and its expressed concerns over its adverse impact on major oil consuming nations.

According to an official statement, he held talks with OPEC Secretary General Haitham Al-Ghais in Abu Dhabi and called for “balancing global energy markets by ensuring that crude oil prices do not outstrip the paying ability of the consuming countries”.

India is the world’s third-largest consumer of crude oil and depends on imports to meet over 85% of its requirement.

He has also been cautioning that unreasonably high oil prices could jeopardise the post-pandemic recovery and lead to an economic slowdown in various parts of the world, which could in turn hit global oil demand.

“During the discussions, the minister highlighted that due to the production cuts carried out by OPEC and OPEC+ countries from August 2022 onwards, effectively around 5% of the total global oil availability has been removed from the market, causing crude oil price to rise around 34% in just (the) last 3 months. These cuts have been made despite growing energy demand. Brent Crude oil prices jumped from around $72/bbl in June to around $97/bbl in September 2023, placing severe strains on the capacities of most oil importing consuming countries,” the petroleum ministry said in the statement.

“Minister wondered whether the global economy is again going to witness a situation similar to the economic turmoil of 2008 which had become a self-fulfilling prophecy. Brent prices had initially soared from $93.60/bbl in January 2008 to $ 134.3/bbl in July 2008, fueling an accelerated global economic meltdown, leading eventually to demand destruction and very low oil prices,” it added.  (KNN Bureau)