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- India’s Energy Minister said that India keeps global oil prices affordable by purchasing crude oil from Russia.
- “If we start buying more Middle Eastern oil, oil prices will not go to $75 or $76,” he told CNBC’s Shri Jegaraja on the sidelines of the India Energy Week conference in Goa. .It’s going to be $150.”
- The minister said he was confident that India’s renewable energy targets would be “fully achieved”.
India’s Energy Minister said that India keeps global oil prices affordable by purchasing crude oil from Russia.
“The world is grateful to India for buying Russian oil,” Indian Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Hardeep Singh Puri told CNBC’s Shri Jegaraja on the sidelines of the India Energy Week conference. It’s not that we don’t want to buy Russian oil.” In Goa.
“If we start buying Middle Eastern oil, the price of oil will be $150, not $75 or $76,” he added.
Since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, Indian refiners have been buying up discounted Russian crude oil.
Since then, Moscow has become India’s main source of crude oil, accounting for about 36% of the South Asian country’s crude oil imports.
As a result, India’s Middle East oil imports have fallen to an all-time low.
Oil prices remain under pressure despite rising tensions in the Red Sea and fears of more conflict in the Middle East. Such uncertainties typically push energy prices higher, but record U.S. production and a continuing global economic slowdown have limited the gains.
The Indian minister said he was not “overly concerned” about whether the lack of availability or affordability of crude oil would cause prices to rise.
“The reality is that half of the jobs are in recession,” he said, adding that any rise in oil prices would eventually become a “self-fulfilling prophecy” where higher prices suppress demand.
India is expected to be the biggest driver of global oil demand growth from 2023 to 2030, the International Energy Agency said in a report on Wednesday.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has announced plans to increase the country’s annual oil refining capacity by almost 80% to 450 million tonnes, a move that could pose a new challenge to India’s renewable energy goals. .
India has set an ambitious goal of meeting 50% of its electricity needs with renewable energy by 2030 and moving to 100% renewable energy by 2050. Currently, 75% of the country’s total electricity is derived from coal-fired power plants.
That said, the minister said he was confident the renewable energy target would be “fully achieved”.
“We are on track to meet our targets and will achieve them all by the deadline,” he said, adding that many of India’s major oil companies have set net-zero targets for 2035 and 2040. added.
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