World oil prices, which have recently tended to be on an upward trend, have made a number of countries wary.
India’s Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas warned that there would be “organized chaos” if oil prices broke above US$100 a barrel, but said the South Asian country was well positioned to weather higher costs.
“If the price goes above US$100, it will not benefit the producing countries or anyone’s interests. You will have huge, organized chaos,” Hardeep Singh Puri told CNBC during a panel at the ADIPEC oil and gas conference in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, Tuesday (3/10/2023).
“You don’t need to worry about the impact on India. India is a large economy that has a lot of domestic production. We will reduce it, we will do something or the other,” Puri said.
Last week, oil prices surged to their highest level in more than a year with US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) oil futures reaching US$95.03 per barrel. Meanwhile, oil prices have fallen again, below the level of US$90 per barrel.
While Puri is confident that India can control higher prices, he warned that other countries may not be able to do the same.
“I’m worried about what’s happening in other developing countries… it’s really worrying,” Puri said, noting that rising prices in the past 18 months had left “100 million people in poverty.”
“They have to switch from affordable gas and cooking fuels [to] wet wood, coal or whatever they can get. That’s the problem.”
The minister said on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, that oil producers needed to be aware of the difficulties facing consuming countries.
“During the pandemic, when crude oil prices plummeted, the world came together to stabilize prices to make it sustainable for producers. Now, when the world is on the cusp of recession and economic slowdown, oil producers need to show the same sensitivity towards consuming countries,” he said in a upload.
Source : CNBC
