India’s petroleum minister Hardeep Singh Puri, expressed alarm over rising oil prices on Monday, saying that price instability may jeopardise the world’s energy transition. On the sidelines of an oil and gas conference in Abu Dhabi, Mr Puri told Reuters that petrol prices and diesel prices are simply rising through the roof and ‘obviously, we are concerned’.
India has been in the forefront of attempts to persuade OPEC to ensure responsible pricing of oil that benefits both producers and consumers. ‘Does it have to be affordable? Yes. If energy is not affordable, you’re going to have a problem’, he said.
‘You cannot have a situation in which the transition is not orderly, stable, and predictable’, he said, adding that it was on to OPEC and allies led by Russia, known as OPEC+, to speed up the pace of raising supply.
Hardeep Singh Puri added that, despite underinvestment in the industry, there remained extra capacity of about 5 million barrels per day that could be put into the market to stabilise prices, but that, oil-producing nations were holding back.
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‘Those decisions, they are taking for whatever reason, is perhaps they think that is a good time to make up for the low prices that were there during the economic lockdown. I have a very different take on it. Sometimes when you take decisions for short-term gain, you may unleash other forces’, he said.
He added that he expected oil demand to fall if prices go beyond a point. Puri further said that manufacturers also require a smooth energy transition and would be harmed if costs were too high.
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