Hope ‘challenging’ oil prices ‘sober’, spoke with Opec: Dharmendra Pradhan

Pradhan noted that cheap oil stored in refineries, floating storage, and pipelines has been used up over the past few months.

On the occasion of National Girl Child Day, Union Minister Jitendra Singh interacted with girls who have excelled in the areas of science, technology and innovation on Monday, January 24 2022 (File)

Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said on Tuesday he was in discussions with oil-producing countries and expected that crude oil prices would “sober” after the next meeting of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), set to happen on July 1.

“Today’s price is a very challenging one. But still, I’m persuading my producer states, and I’ve had very good discussions with OPEC. An OPEC meeting is supposed to be there in the next few days, and I hope the price will be a little bit sober. That’s our expectation,” Pradhan said in an online event by Bloomberg NEF. High crude oil prices have contributed to raising the price of petrol to over Rs 100 per litre in 12 states and Union Territories, and diesel retailing at over Rs 100 per litre in some parts of Rajasthan and Odisha.

Pradhan noted that cheap oil stored in refineries, floating storage, and pipelines has been used up over the past few months.

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The OPEC + group of countries are set to decide production quotas for the next few months in the upcoming meeting. The group is currently in the process of slowly winding down cuts in crude oil production. Saudi Arabia is set to increase production by 400,000 barrels per day in July as it winds down a voluntary 1 million barrel per day production cut it had announced in February.

Pradhan said the government had approved 100 per cent FDI in refining. This move is set to facilitate automatic approval for a takeover of Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd by any foreign bidder. Three bidders including Vedanta group, New York-based Apollo Global, and I Squared Capital’s arm Think Gas are in the running to acquire the government’s 53 per cent stake in BPCL.

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