Union Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas, Hardeep Singh Puri said the government managed the energy supply problems caused by the West Asia crisis without putting much pressure on the public. He also said domestic production was increased from 36,000 metric tons to 54,000 metric tons, calling the growth “mind-boggling.”
Speaking at the CII Annual Summit, he said India’s oil companies are losing Rs 1,000 crore every day and the under recovery is going to be Rs 1,98,000 crore.
He said India has 60 days of crude, 60 days of LNG, and 45 days of LPG and there is no problem on the supply side.
“If you look at the fiscal situation, if you look at the fact that my oil companies are losing Rs 1,000 crores every day, the under recovery is going to be Rs 1,98,000 crores. The losses are Rs 1 lakh crore, if you look at the quarter. In that context, how long can you keep it like this? Where is the oil? It used to be around $64 or $65. It has gone up to $115 in that basket,” he said.
“If I remember correctly, we haven’t raised prices for the last four years. We’re the only country in the world. Somebody said, ‘the elections are over, now the price will rise.’ 2022 was the last time we raised prices. There has been a general election in 2024, and there have been elections in the state government. It’s not that prices will not go up. I’m saying the two are unrelated,” he added.
Referring to West Asia conflict, Puri said 20% of global energy used to come from the Strait of Hormuz.
“Eighty five per cent of our imports of crude, a large percentage used to come from there. But more importantly, our LPG, the cylinder gas, which you use in kitchens, about 60% used to come from the Strait of Hormuz. Now we had to make arrangements. I’m amazed at what we were able to do. Our domestic production of LPG prior to the crisis was 35,000 or 36,000 metric tons per day. We ramped up our domestic production from 36,000 to 54,000 metric tons. This by itself is a mind-boggling thing,” he said.
“Tell me any one country where prices have remained the same, and there has been no shortage anywhere in spite of the best efforts of some people to try to black market and raise false rumours. If I looked at some statistics, petrol consumption has gone up by 6%. In a crisis, there’d been no dry outs. Every petrol pump in the country has had petrol and diesel. LPG supply is more than enough. We have done some good things. We have ramped up LPG production. We brought consumption down a little,” he added.
The Union Minister said urged people to follow the suggestions given by Prime Minister Narendra Modi so that money spent on imports comes down.
“I’m going to conclude this by saying we have 60 days of crude, which is the maximum we need. We have 60 days of LNG, and we have 45 days of LPG. So there’s no problem on the supply side. So why this panic since yesterday, or a day and a half? Please see what the Prime Minister has actually said, and let’s not put a bizarre construct on it. This is borne out by the facts,” he said.
“If you look at the news this morning, the leader of the largest economy in the world is saying that “ceasefire is on life support”… PM Modi says, the time has come for us to look at our lifestyle also, and I totally endorse that. It’s not that any lockdown is going to take place tomorrow,” he added. (ANI)
(Inputs from ANI)
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