The Hindu : No change in contingency plan: Ram Naik

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Mar 25, 2003

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No change in contingency plan: Ram Naik

MUMBAI MARCH 24. The Union Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas, Ram Naik, today said that there was no change in the Government's contingency plan in the wake of the U.S.-led war on Iraq.

"As of now, we see no reason to change our contingency plan as the circumstances have not changed much," Mr. Naik told newspersons after inaugurating Asia's first two-day Gas Buyers' Summit here.

The Minister had last week said that the Government had since September chalked out plans for increasing the stock of oil products and had enough petrol, diesel, ATF, LPG and other products to last two months.

Referring to the sanctity of the agreement of ONGC for a block near Basra in case the regime changes in Iraq, he said "generally in international agreements, the commitments made by the previous regime are maintained".

On the import bill for crude in 2002-03, he said it would be higher than Rs. 78,000 crores incurred in the previous fiscal as international prices have gone up as compared to those prevailing in 2001-02. The price was pegged at $19-20 a barrel in March 2002, which now has gone up to over $32.

During the 1991 Iraq conflict, India had to face several problems, one of which was payment of the import bill but this time the country had the highest foreign exchange reserves, he said.

Whether petrol and diesel would cost more, he said it would depend on the average price of crude, which was priced at a lower rate of $24 a barrel on Friday last and if the same trend continued, the oil companies would take this into account during fortnightly review of prices. The Mahanagar Gas (MGL) will invest Rs. 225 crores as part of its expansion plans for installing more gas pipelines in Mumbai.

PTI, UNI

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