The Hindu : Oil prices may be reduced

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Nov 15, 2002

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National

Oil prices may be reduced

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI Nov. 14. Domestic petrol and diesel prices are set to fall due to the dip in international crude oil prices after Iraq agreed to abide by the U.N resolution on weapons inspections.

The Petroleum Minister, Ram Naik, told the media today that if the trend continued, the public sector oil companies would pass on the benefit of the fall in global prices at the global level to consumers in the country.

This would depend, however, on the trend continuing in world markets. Though the administered pricing mechanism has been dismantled, the Petroleum Ministry is evidently still being consulted on the fortnightly price review by the oil companies. Mr. Naik said the fall in oil prices would be good news, but he was unable to indicate the extent of reduction. A review will take place on November 16. Over the last two months, diesel and petrol prices had been raised by about Rs. 1.50 a litre but the cut now may be marginal. Oil companies were bound to be cautious while making the price cut since they had already had to bear the burden of keeping the price line for several months after the APM was dismantled even though world prices shot up over this period. Expectations were that the decline in prices would be gradual.

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