Union Minister Puri calls on Saudi Arabia to voice concerns over high oil prices

Continuing his oil diplomacy, Oil Minister Hardeep Singh Puri on Thursday called OPEC Baron Saudi Arabia to express India’s concerns over high oil prices which have pushed up oil prices. fuel at an all time high.

A day after speaking to his counterpart in the United Arab Emirates, Puri spoke with Prince Abdul Aziz bin Salman Al Saud, Minister of Energy of Saudi Arabia. He spoke on Saturday with his Qatari counterpart.

“Saudi Arabia is a central player in the international energy market,” he tweeted. “I expressed my desire to work with His Royal Highness Prince Abdulaziz to bring more predictability and calm to the global oil markets, and also to see hydrocarbons become more affordable.”

Puri called his talks with the Saudi minister “warm and friendly”.

Discussions focused “on strengthening the bilateral energy partnership and developments in global energy markets,” he said. “Underlined the crucial role of Saudi Arabia in the rapid growth of India’s energy needs in the coming years, and my strong desire to work with His Royal Highness to further diversify our bilateral strategic energy partnership beyond the buyer-seller to see larger investments both ways. “

As fuel prices hit an all-time high, Puri began calling oil-producing countries to make them understand the need to make prices affordable for consumers.

Puri, who called Qatar’s energy minister last week, called his UAE counterpart Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber on Wednesday.

OPEC, Russia and several other allies in a production deal were unable to come to an agreement earlier this month on production quotas for August and possibly beyond. The alliance was expected to agree to increase production from 500,000 to 700,000 barrels per day, but the decision was postponed as the UAE differed on the baseline for such an increase in production. .

India is the world’s third-largest consumer of crude, and OPEC countries like Saudi Arabia have traditionally been its main source of oil. But OPEC and OPEC, ignoring his call for easing supply restrictions, had led India to tap new sources to diversify its crude oil imports.

As a result, OPEC’s share of India’s oil imports fell to around 60 percent in May, from 74 percent the month before.

The two sides patched up relations somewhat, with Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates providing essential medicine, oxygen and equipment to help India fight its second wave of coronavirus infections.