PM seeks cooperation of oil producing nations

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday met Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) and experts from the Oil and Gas sector from both India and abroad, and sought cooperation of oil producing countries in bridging the gap with the consuming countries over the rising crude oil prices and many economic challenges.

Besides Prime Minister Modi, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Dharmendra Pradhan and NITI Aayog Vice Chairman Rajiv Kumar were also present at the interaction.

The Prime Minister drew attention of the experts on certain key policy issues relevant to India. He highlighted that the consuming countries, due to rising crude oil prices, face many other economic challenges including serious resource crunch. He said that the cooperation of the oil producing countries would be very critical to bridge the gap. He further appealed to the oil producing countries to channel their investible surplus to pursue commercial exploitation in oil sector in the developing countries.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Modi also spoke of higher acreage under exploration and sought cooperation of the developed countries both in terms of technology and extension of coverage. He even sought the role of private participation in the distribution of gas sector.

Talking of technology, Prime Minister Modi appealed for assistance in areas where high pressure and high temperature technology applications are relevant to commercial exploitation of natural gas. He even requested for review of payment terms so as to provide temporary relief to the local currency.

The global CEOs and experts appreciated steps taken by the Bharatiya Janata Party-led central government over the last four years, for ease of doing business and specifically in the energy sector in India. Experts made special mention of India's competitive ranking from upstream investment point of view which has gone up from 56 to 44.

"Under Prime Minister Modi's stewardship, doing business in India has become significantly easier. FDI has grown and inflation is under control. In other words, Prime Minister Modi is making good of his promise of 'Acche Din'," said Saudi Arabia Energy Minister Khalid A. Al-Falih.