No plan to cut petrol, diesel prices: Puri

New Delhi: Terming the reports about the possible cut in prices of petrol and diesel as ‘speculative’ and ‘mischievous’, Union Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas Hardeep Singh Puri on Wednesday said the government has no such proposal as the situation in international markets remained volatile. 

“We are in a very turbulent situation right now with high volatility in crude prices. There has been no discussion with the oil marketing companies on price cuts,” Puri said at a media conference.

The minister’s comment led to a rally in share price of oil marketing companies. Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited surged 3.24% on the Bombay Stock Exchange. Indian Oil Corporation soared 1.8% while Bharat Petroleum Corporation rallied 1.07%. 

Oil marketing companies’ shares were under pressure in the past couple of days on speculation of a cut in prices of diesel and petrol, as such an eventuality would impact their profits. Although officially diesel and petrol have been deregulated and oil marketing companies are free to change prices on a daily basis, the price of these petroleum products has not changed for the past 21 months. 

When asked why oil marketing companies are not passing on the benefits of decline in crude oil prices to consumers, Puri retorted these companies also absorbed the pressure when prices were high in the international markets. 

On the impact of energy supply to India due to disruptions in the Red Sea, the minister said there is no major impact but the government is keeping its fingers crossed. 

The minister claimed that India is probably the only major country in the world where the price of petrol and diesel did not increase in 2023. “Our primary responsibility is to ensure that there’s availability and affordability,” he added. 

To ensure supply of crude oil at an affordable price, the government is working to diversify sources, he said. 

Puri also rubbished the speculation of payment issues in purchase of Russian oil. “There is no payment problem. It is a pure function of the price at which our refineries will buy,” he said. 

The minister said the government remained focused on promoting clean energy. He said ethanol blending led to saving of around 509 crore litres of petrol resulting in savings of more than Rs 24,300 crore worth of foreign exchange during ESY 2022-23 (November 2022 to October 2023). 

According to the minister, the government has taken a lot of steps to increase the share of natural gas from present 6.3% to 15% in the country’s primary energy mix. This would require an investment of around $67 billion in natural gas infrastructure in the next 5-6 years