Oil Minister Dharmendra Pradhan urged OPEC to phase out production cuts sooner, maintain crude prices at reasonable level. Pradhan raised concern on output and prices for oil as fuel prices soar above the 100 mark for petrol across India.
Brent crude has climbed 38% in 2021 to a two-year high to levels last seen in April 2019. OPEC and its partners, a 23-nation grouping led by Saudi Arabia and Russia stuck to a plan to increase output through June and July . But they refused to say what their plans were beyond those dates. OPEC+ are still withholding around 6 million barrels a day of crude.
Oil Minister after the meeting with OPEC tweeted "I took the opportunity to express India’s deep concern on increasing crude oil prices and its impact on consumers as well as on smart economic recovery. I emphasised that high crude prices is adding significant inflationary pressure on India."
Inflation in fuel and power basket spiked to 37.61 per cent during May, against 20.94 per cent in April.