The oil minister also sought to highlight that India's energy mix is transforming rapidly and over the past three years, renewable energy has grown with the price of solar energy coming down to 4 cents per unit
At the recently held energy dialogue of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) in Vienna, Oil minister Dharmendra Pradhan emphasised that countries such as India should not bear the brunt for subsidies provided to others and urged for a more "responsible pricing", that would ease supply of energy to the common man.
"Higher prices would force (consuming countries) to go for alternate forms of energy which would be slowing down the demand of crude oil," Pradhan said during his speech at the dialogue.
On the issue of cross subsidisation of tariff, Pradhan said, " During my last visit to Vienna for the 6th OPEC International Seminar in 2015, I had raised the issue of 'Asian Dividend not Asian Premium'. The issue of Asian Premium still continues to exist. Our companies pay billions of dollars on this account. They still don't understand the rationale of this cross subsidisation of tariff between West and the East."
The oil minister also sought to highlight that India's energy mix is transforming rapidly and over the past three years, renewable energy has grown with the price of solar energy coming down to 4 cents per unit. "There is huge pressure to shift focus to solar, wind, electric vehicles and hybrid cars. We need to realize that the oil industry is at a delicate cross road and higher crude prices will give a further push to renewables," Pradhan added.
India is one of the biggest oil importers and Pradhan sought to highlight that the annual refining capacity has grown to 235 MMT, of which 194 MMT of products are consumed domestically, while rest is exported.
During the Energy Dialogue, the minister was Pradhan was accompanied by Chief Executives of seven large refiners of India, from both public and private sector. The delegation comprised of chief executives of Indian Oil Corporation Limited, Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd, Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd, Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd, Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited (HPCL) and Mittal Energy, Reliance and Essar.
This was the first time that both public sector and private refiners from India came together to present their common issues, concerns and demands before the OPEC.
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