India has requested the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) to adopt “responsible pricing” for oil and other petroleum products.
During his meeting with OPEC Secretary General Sanusi Mohammad Barkindo in New Delhi earlier this week, Indian Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said that responsible pricing would encourage the South Asian country to increase the volume of imports from OPEC nations in the coming days. He also said that the intergovernmental organisation of 14 nations should consider India – the world’s third-biggest oil consumer – as its preferred sales destination.

According to sources close to the Indian ministry, Pradhan and Barkindo mainly discussed “the current scenario of the global oil and gas industry”, apart from exchanging views on recent political developments in different parts of the world. During the meeting, the Indian minister further said that it would be important for producers to understand the perspective of oil consuming countries and the recent changes in demand centres. The ministry said in a statement: “Pradhan reiterated that the OPEC should work towards ‘responsible pricing’, which is important for India for socio-economic and developmental reasons.”
Pradhan also reiterated India’s decade-old view that the OPEC should consider giving ‘Asian Dividend’, instead of charging ‘Asian Premium’ on the crude supplied to the country, saying that countries, like India, should be OPEC’s ‘preferred destination’. He informed the senior OPEC official that India was ready to hold purposeful dialogues with oil producing and consumer countries, as it would be crucial for the South Asian country to diversify its crude oil supply sources and tap new sources.

Pradhan told Barkindo that OPEC’s ‘irresponsible’ pricing prompted India to import oil from the US. A couple of days after two shipments of crude oil cargo of 1.6 million barrels arrived in India from the US, the minister said that three Indian public sector refineries recently placed a cumulative order of 7.85 million barrel from America, while a private refiner placed an order of two million barrel from a European country.
Meanwhile, Barkindo – who arrived in India to attend the first CERAWEEK India Energy Forum – assured Pradhan that he would discuss the issue with OPEC members and urge them to think about the pricing once again. The senior OPEC official also confirmed his participation in the 16th Ministerial Meeting of International Energy Forum in India in April 2018.
Currently, India imports nearly 86% of crude oil, 75% of natural gas and 95% of LPG from OPEC countries.

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Koushik Das (born on May 16, 1976 in Kolkata) is a career journalist. Based in the Indian capital of New Delhi, Koushik writes mainly about foreign policies and current geopolitical issues, and rarely about other topics. His own political ideas are highly influenced by Antonio Gramsci, Louis Althusser, Michel Foucault, Michael Oakeshott and others. English philosopher and political theorist Oakeshott (Dec 11, 1901-Dec 19, 1990) says that “in political activity, men sail a boundless and bottomless sea. There is neither harbour for shelter nor floor for anchorage, neither starting-place, nor appointed destination. But we have to keep afloat”. (Rationalism in Politics, 1962) As a student of Political Science, Koushik loves to share his views on issues, which have great impacts on his thought process (and also on India, South Asia and of course on the global community), with his readers through his website – Boundless Ocean of Politics. By doing so, he tries to keep himself afloat. You will find some of his articles in https://inserbia.info/today/ (https://inserbia.info/today/author/kou_das13_i/), as he has been trying to assess the global geopolitics since 2003. You can also mail him at kousdas@gmail.com View all posts by Koushik Das