How about India?
India's 04/05 crude oil import may rise 33 pc
REUTERS
Posted online: Thursday, December 02, 2004 at 1628 hours IST
NEW DELHI, DECEMBER 2: India's crude oil import bill in the year to March 2005 is expected to rise to $24 billion from $18 billion in the previous year, Oil Minister Mani Shankar Aiyar told Parliament on Thursday.
The oil import bill of the rapidly growing, energy-starved economy is rising as global prices have soared this year with U.S. light, sweet crude oil futures touching a record $55.67 a barrel in late October.
So far, the government has allowed only moderate increase in fuel prices, cutting taxes on refined products and abandoning its policy to allow energy firms to raise petrol and diesel prices twice a month to align them with global trends.
"Our prices would have gone through the roof," Aiyar said.
World oil prices on Thursday are about $10 lower than October's peak, encouraging Aiyar to say fuel prices would stabilise in the domestic market also.
"We have very carefully managed prices and now seeing that there is some decrease in international prices taking place, I hope therefore that we will be able to introduce a more stable price regime with in the country," he said.
Oil demand in India, which imports 70 per cent of its crude oil requirement, has risen about 5 per cent this year, partly because of government controls on prices, analysts say.
India's crude oil imports rose 9.4 per cent to 1.98 million barrels a day in April-October because of rising domestic sales and a 6.2 per cent growth in exports of refined products.
|
