Jaishankar, Puri, Sitharaman, Goyal meet PM as petroleum prices rise sharply
New Delhi, Mar 10: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday met some top ministers and asked them to work together to ensure Indian consumers do not suffer from the impact of the West Asia conflict on the supply and price of petroleum products, sources said.
Amid rising tensions in West Asia ever since the United States and Israel attacked Iran, oil prices have risen substantially and there have been apprehensions about a possible shortage of petroleum products, including LPG, in India.
The sources said that Prime Minister Modi has been proactive in ensuring that Indian consumers do not face the brunt of higher petroleum prices, as India is a net importer of crude oil and natural gas.
They said that the prime minister told the ministers to work in coordination and ensure that there is no shortage of petroleum products and LPG.
PM Modi met External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, Oil Minister Hardeep Singh Puri, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal and discussed the energy situation in the country.
The sources said India, which sources a lot of its energy products from West Asia, has now diversified its procurement from other countries as well and is sourcing them from the US, Russia, Venezuela, Australia and other Oceanic countries.
Amid the West Asia crisis, India has said that LPG production, CNG and piped cooking gas will take precedence over all other sectors using natural gas, as the government rejigged allocation to ensure uninterrupted supply for households and transport sectors.
As the widening conflict disrupted 30 per cent of India’s gas supply, the oil ministry, in a gazette notification, ordered available gas to be diverted from non-priority sectors to key users.
India meets half of its 191 million standard cubic metres per day (mmscmd) of gas consumption through imports. With the stalling of tanker movement through the Strait of Hormuz, about 60 mmscmd gas from the Middle East has been disrupted.
The remaining liquefied natural gas (LNG) has been reprioritised to meet 100 per cent of the demand of LPG production, CNG and piped cooking gas (PNG), 80 per cent of commercial users of the fuel and 70 per cent of fertiliser unit needs.
