Amid high volatility in international markets, India, world’s third largest oil consumer, on Friday pitched for a stable oil market that provides reasonable price for producers and affordable rate for consumers.
Speaking at the extraordinary meeting of energy ministers of G20 nations, Oil Minister Dharmendra Pradhan asserted that India will remain the engine of world energy demand growth.
“In terms of the ongoing energy market fluctuations, Minister stated that India has always advocated for a stable oil market, which is reasonable for producers and affordable for consumers,” an official statement said.
The G20 Energy Ministers’ focused on ways and means to ensure stable energy markets, which are affected due to demand reduction as result of the Covid-19 pandemic and the ongoing surplus production related matters. Participating in the meeting through video link, Pradhan highlighted the decision to provide 80.3 million poor families free LPG cylinders, as part of a USD 23 billion relief package to deal with the fallout of Covid-19.
He emphasised that India was and will continue to be the global energy demand centre.
The Minister also underscored Government’s efforts to fill in strategic reserves using low oil price regime. Appreciating the collective efforts of OPEC and OPEC-plus countries to balance the supply-side factors which is imperative for long-term sustainability, he however urged that oil prices should be targeted to affordable levels to allow for a consumption-led demand recovery.
The G20 Energy Ministers’ meeting will be adopting a joint statement, which inter alia, proposes to establish a task force to advise the G20 Energy Ministers on the next steps, and agreed to remain engaged in the coming days. The G20 group of leading world economies had called an extraordinary energy ministers’ meeting to discuss OPEC-led plans for a global crude oil production cut accord aimed at shoring up prices that have in the last one month halved.