Indian minister urges Opec+ to consider impact on consumers at Dec meeting

India’s oil minister on Monday urged the Opec+ alliance of oil producers to bear in mind the impact of their upcoming decision, expected on December 4, on consumers as inflation soars across the world.

Hardeep Singh Puri told Reuters on the sidelines of a major industry event in Abu Dhabi that the Opec+ decision was a “sovereign” one.

“It is entirely up to the producers to determine how much they want to produce and what price they want to sell,” he said.

But he added: “They have to factor in what’s happening in the world, what the impact of their decisions will be.”

India’s oil imports reliance is 85 per cent and the country consumes about 5 million barrels of oil per day, he added, which is about five per cent of global consumption.

“Our gas production went up by 18 per cent last year, it will go up by another 18 per cent this year, but we are the world’s fastest growing major economy and our consumption is going up.”

“We will diversify. I never bought energy from the US, we’re buying $20 billion a year now. We are looking to any other source, wherever energy is coming in from,” adding India was accelerating use of alternative energy sources.

“So what she said and what we said, you know, we don’t make public comments on that. But you know, you know what the situation is,” he said. — Reuters