New Delhi: Although the closure of Strait of Hormuz on February 28 was really a worst-case situation for global energy markets, the Indian government acted quickly to handle the crisis and ensure normal supply of fuels in the country, Navdeep Suri, former Ambassador of India to the UAE, said on Monday.
Speaking to IANS, Suri said “I think there was some very proactive energy diplomacy that we saw”.
“The special relationship that the government has forged with countries like the UAE, with Saudi Arabia, with Qatar, came in very, very handy. We saw the Prime Minister’s visit to UAE on the 15th of May. We saw the Minister of Petroleum’s visit to Qatar also during the war. So I think because we had such good relations with these countries, we could keep somehow energy flows coming to us, whether it was LPG or crude oil,” the former envoy observed.
He further highlighted that the other significant factor of India’s diplomacy during this period has been the way the country could pivot from the Gulf to Russia, and then from Russia to the United States, and even diversify its sources by reaching out to Venezuela, to Nigeria, to Gabon, to Guyana, to some of the non-traditional suppliers in Africa and in Latin America.
“I think all of that contributed to a situation where even though many other countries were facing a serious crisis, we managed to largely avoid it,” Suri remarked.
The former ambassador also pointed out that the government managed to keep prices at affordable levels for consumers. When prices were rising rapidly post February 28, when the war started, the government chose to absorb most of the increase or the oil companies chose to absorb some of the increase.
“The government sacrificed taxes, the oil companies sacrificed some of their profits and managed to keep prices in check,” he told IANS.
“I think it’s been fairly prudent the way the pricing situation has been handled. And I think the objective of the government was really that in the short run, the consumer should be protected,” he remarked,
Suri pointed out that the government absorbed the bulk of the increase, especially when global oil prices spiked from $70 a barrel to $126 a barrel. That huge increase was largely absorbed by the government.
“It was a combination of keeping the foreign supplies, imported supplies coming in from countries like the UAE, from markets like the United States, from newer markets in Africa and Latin America, but it was also some fairly smart demand management on the Indian side itself, the way we were able to expand the production of LPG within the country fairly quickly, I think really helped,” Suri said.
He also highlighted that in sharp contrast to countries like Pakistan, where schools were shut or other countries where you had massive queues and shortages of fuels, India was largely unaffected by the energy shortage.
(IANS)
