Union Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Hardeep Singh Puri has said India’s decision to buy oil from Russia amid global uncertainties helped avert a potential spike in global oil prices.
“India did the entire world a favour by buying Russian oil because if we had not done so, the global oil prices would have skyrocketed to $200/barrel,” the minister said on X on Thursday.
“Let us not forget that while some ill-informed commentators talked about putting restrictions on India, many other European and Asian nations bought much more crude oil, diesel, LNG, rare earth minerals worth billions of dollars from Russia,” the minister said.
“We will continue to buy energy from whoever offers the best rates to our oil companies. That’s the confidence of PM @narendramodi Ji’s leadership,” he added.
The Union Minister said we need to ensure steady availability, affordability and sustainability of energy for our 7 crore citizens who visit a petrol pump everyday. “That’s our top priority.”
He further highlighted that India is the only major consumer where fuel prices have come down significantly in the last 3 years despite unprecedented global price increases in other nations.
On Monday, Minister Puri called for discussions between oil producers and consumers to stabilise prices. Oil prices rose more than 2% following a decision by OPEC to delay by a month plans to increase output.
“I’m hoping as a professional that all the players in this game will see a reason that… both producers and consumers can sit down together, have a discussion on what is a realistic price because it is not as if some production is taken off,” he had said.