US to increase crude oil purchases from Africa for cheaper petrol-diesel India, Saudi resolve dispute

- Saudi advises India to use stockpiled crude oil when prices fall in 2020

New delhi date. Thursday, April 8, 2021

The government will increase crude oil purchases from the US and Africa to control petrol and diesel prices in the country and to avoid Saudi Arabia's arbitrariness of keeping crude oil prices high. India is the world's third largest importer of crude oil.

Saudi 'undiplomacy'

The Modi government had urged Saudi Arabia to increase crude oil production to reduce demand and bring down prices. Earlier, Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan had said that high crude oil prices were an obstacle for developing economies to emerge from the post-Covid-19 situation.

At the time, Saudi Arabia's Petroleum Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman advised India to use the stockpile of crude oil it had accumulated when prices fell in 2020. The minister called the response "undiplomatic".

Point to increase purchases from America, Africa

In the meantime, the government has called on public sector oil companies to increase their purchases of crude oil from the United States and Africa and to reduce their dependence on Saudi crude by a third. According to a report, companies order an average of 14 million barrels of crude oil a month from Saudi Arabia. But this time only 95 lakh barrels have been ordered for the month of May.

The idea of ​​bringing crude from Brazil, Guinea, Norway

The possibility of importing Tupi Grade from Brazil, Liza from Guinea and Johan Swordrup from Norway is being considered to meet the shortage in the country following the cut in oil imports from Saudi.