India has been appealing to crude oil producing countries — OPEC and OPEC Plus — since the beginning of the year, to ease crude oil production cuts announced last year, as high crude prices hurt consumption-led recovery, the Ministry of External Affairs has said.

Crude supply should be market determined rather than artificially managed, MEA Spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said at a media briefing on Friday.

Elaborating on the global oil situation, the Spokesperson said that the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas was reviewing closely the global crude supplies and price situation.

“We have noted that OPEC and OPEC Plus have announced last week a slight easing of crude production cuts, even though it is still far below the originally announced schedule of cuts,” he said. The oil producing countries decided to ease supplies gradually over May, June and July.

Bagchi confirmed that US Special Presidential Envoy on Climate, John Kerry, would visit Delhi from April 5-8 to discuss the forthcoming climate leaders summit hosted by the US later this month. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has accepted US President Joe Biden’s invitation to attend the virtual summit, the Spokesperson said.

Kerry will be interacting with various Ministers including External Affairs, Finance, Petroleum and Natural Gas, Power and Environment.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, too, will visit India on April 5, but the MEA Spokesperson did not say if the S-400 air defence system deal would feature in the bilateral discussions.

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