NEW DELHI: India will shell out $45 billion more in 2006-07 compared with $21 billion paid in 2003-04 for importing crude oil into the country, according to the minister of petroleum and natural gas, Murli Deora. India’s import bill is likely to shoot up to about $66 billion in 2006-07.
Deora gave out the worrisome figures in a keynote address in Vienna on Wednesday at a conference organised by the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC).
In contrast to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s indication back home on August 15 that LPG and kerosene prices needed to be reviewed, Deora indicated his government’s inability to reflect international oil price hikes in domestic cooking fuel.
Accompanied by petroleum secretary M S Srinivasan, Indian Oil chairman S Behuria and managing director ONGC Videsh Ltd, Deora met Dr Edmund Daukoru, minister of state for petroleum resources of Nigeria and the current president of OPEC.
