Why in news?
- Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas and Steel, participated in the G20 Extraordinary Energy Ministers’ virtual Meeting on 10th April 2020 called by Saudi Arabia, in its capacity as the G20 Presidency.
- The G20 Energy Ministers’ focused on ways and means to ensure stable energy markets, which are affected due to demand reduction as result of the COVID-19 pandemic and the ongoing surplus production -related matters.
- The G20 Energy Ministers’ meeting will be adopting a Joint Statement, which inter alia, proposes to establish a Task Force to advise the G20 Energy Ministers on the next steps, and agreed to remain engaged in the coming days.
India’s Position
- India has always advocated for a stable oil market, which is reasonable for producers and affordable for consumers.
- Collective efforts of OPEC and OPEC-plus countries to balance the supply-side factors which is imperative for long-term sustainability was appreciated.
- It was urged that oil prices should be targeted to affordable levels to allow for a consumption-led demand recovery.
- Prime Minister’s call for G20 taking a human-centric approach for overcoming challenging hardships, especially for the vulnerable was reiterated.
- It was emphasized that India was, and will continue to be, the global energy demand centre.
- Government of India’s efforts to fill in our Strategic Petroleum Reserves, Ujjwala scheme to provide 80.3 million poor families free LPG cylinders was highlighted.
