No discussion with OMCs on price cuts, news reports speculative: Hardeep Puri

Union Oil Minister Hardeep Puri on Wednesday, January 3, dismissed news reports of a ₹10 price cut in retail prices of petrol and diesel as prices of crude oil remain volatile owing to geopolitical conflicts.

"I have clarified that there has been no discussion with the oil marketing companies on any such issue." The minister also called the news reports "speculative and slightly mischievous."

Elaborating on the current scenario after the Red Sea attacks, the minister said, "We are in a highly turbulent situation," where 12% of the global shipping trade emanates.

In 2023, 4-8% of global LNG cargoes came from the Suez Canal, and Red Sea routes while 8.2 million barrels of crude oil per day come through these routes, the minister said.

"We are navigating this very carefully; we have diversified our sources of supplies, and many of the suppliers have changed their routes," Puri explained.

Puri said the price of crude oil, after going up to $80 plus has come down slightly to $77 levels now, but in a highly volatile situation, the government’s primary responsibility is to ensure the availability and affordability of fuel.

Earlier, CNBC-TV18 reported a "much stronger" case for a fuel price cut should crude prices manage to stay below the $75 per barrel threshold on a sustained basis.

India is the world’s third-largest consumer of crude oil and depends on imports to meet over 85% of its requirements.

Meanwhile, shares of oil marketing companies such as Indian Oil Corp, Bharat Petroleum Corp and Hindustan Petroleum Corp, rose by up to 3%. IOC shares settled 1.7% higher, HPCL nearly 3% and BPCL also gained 1.15%.