The Hindu Business Line : Rising crude prices, a cause for concern: Deora

New Delhi, Nov 7 Voicing concern over the surge in international crude oil prices, the Petroleum Minister, Mr Murli Deora, said that it posed danger of economic dislocation to developing countries. Addressing the first India-Africa Hydrocarbon Conference, here he said, “This is a matter of grave concern to all developing countries due to the imminent danger of economic dislocation and its cascading effect on both oil producing and consuming countries.”

“We are committed to ensuring our billion strong nation affordable access to energy. To insulate our economy from the vagaries of the international oil market and inflationary pressures that could arise from transferring the entire price rise to end-users, the Union Government and the national oil companies are absorbing over 85 per cent of the difference between cost of import and domestic oil prices,” Mr Deora said. Indian basket of crude oil touched an all-time high of $88.26 per barrel on Monday.

The two-day conference has been jointly organised by the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas and FICCI with the support of Unctad. “As legitimate energy demands of developing countries grow in order to fuel their economic growth, the spare capacity across the global supply chain has been diminishing feed speculative interests in the oil market,” he said.

Seeks cooperation

Seeking greater cooperation with the African nations, Mr Deora said, “under these trying times, the spectacular oil reserves of Africa are gratifying.”

India is seeking oil and gas acreages in African countries such as Nigeria, Sudan and Egypt.

The External Affairs Minister, Mr Pranab Mukherjee, in his inaugural address reiterated India’s high resolve at attaining energy security as a matter of national importance for which prospects are being relentlessly explored for sourcing energy from India’s neighbourhood and beyond.

He said that the newly created Energy Security Unit in his Ministry would maintain close coordination with other ministries concerned and public and private corporate entities to support their international engagement through appropriate diplomatic intervention.

Hydrocarbon sector

Mr Mukherjee said, “India stands ready to share its experience with its African partners in the hydrocarbon sector, from exploration to distribution through refining, storage and transportation.

It is crucial that over a period of time, investment in this sector should directly assist in the building up of a trained and skilled workforce capable of efficiently running the assets.”

Speaking on occasion Mr Awad Ahmed Al-Jaz, Minister of Energy and Mining of Sudan, asked the Indian major ONGC to make greater investment in Sudan and said that India can provide very good human resource who can act upon the natural resources such as oil and gas and other minerals of Africa.

He stressed that Sudan is interested to invite genuine investors, who are looking at Sudan for cooperation in hydrocarbon sector, pointing out that it is an appropriate time and opportunity to make investment decisions in Sudan.