Oil Minister Hardeep Singh Puri said on Friday that oil producing countries cannot hold consumers to ransom, underlining the nation’s growing frustration with OPEC+ for not raising production to cool prices. India is the world’s third-biggest oil importer and consumer and imports about 85 per cent of its oil needs, and has been hit hard by rising oil prices. Oil prices eased on Friday, however, on concerns about a new Covid-19 variant detected in South Africa. “The producing countries cannot hold the consuming countries to ransom for a variety of reasons. Oil prices are determined by Saudi Arabia, UAE and Russia as part of OPEC+, Puri said in a separate event hosted by Republic TV.

Source: The Hindu November 27, 2021 13:36 UTC