Union Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Dharmendra Pradhan on Monday said all oil producing countries are taking India very seriously.
Addressing a press conference here, the Union Minister said, "India imports oil from Gulf Cooperation Council area its requirements. We have engagement with Kuwait and Qatar. In fact, we have good and sound relationship with all of them. All the oil producing nations are taking India very seriously because India is a huge consumer market in the world."
Talking about India's expectation about crude oil price, Pradhan said, "Price should be sensitive, responsible, and reasonable."
Replying another question, Pradhan said on a lighter note, "The oil is so oily that nobody can predict the price of oil."
He added that it is a pure demand driven issue and "cannot be decided at a press conference that what should be the ideal price".
The Union Minister said India does not have energy accessibility issue at all.
"India is supplying oil products to Nepal and Sri Lanka. In India, we are supplying energy to every nook and corner of the country. Now, energy accessibility is not at all an issue in India," Pradhan said.
When asked why petroleum products are cheaper in India's neighbouring countries, Pradhan said, "In certain neighbouring countries energy is available for few. They have their own subsidised mechanism. India consciously took the route of the international price mechanism and put some taxes. If we go by the market principle we have to link it to the market. We cannot give subsidy. We cannot subsidise products for few as it is not beneficial for all."
"Even countries like Saudi Arab and UAE have started withdrawing subsidy on this kind of product. So, this is not a fair argument that is why some of our neighbours have low price as they are supplying to few and we are supplying it to all," Pradhan added.
Talking about his meeting with UAE Minister for Human Resources and Emiratisation Nasser Al Hamli, Pradhan said it was very fruitful in which detailed discussions were held on three areas.
"Firstly, it has been decided that every year the number of persons coming to this part of world, particularly UAE, must come skilled and trained. We have finalised certain job roles that are required here. We will be jointly finalizing the assessing bodies also and we will impart that level of training in India to people coming to UAE. There will be two benefits: the productivity of UAE will increase and the Indian skilled manpower will lead a decent livelihood," Pradhan said.
"The second area is that India is a knowledge base society and the UAE wants to be a part of our knowledge-based system. Thirdly, more than three million people are working in UAE and we agreed to re-skill and up-skill them according to the need of the time," Pradhan added.
The UAE Minister for Human Resources and Emiratisation on Sunday said 'Indians are valuable to UAE economy.'
"We are very happy to host our Indian guests here. Indians are very hard working and they are very valuable for our economy. We are also happy that they are supporting their families back home in India," Hamli told ANI in Dubai.
Commenting on the Indian workforce in UAE, the minister expressed happiness over how "very hardworking" Indians, "who are valuable to the (UAE) economy," support their families back at home whilst working on the UAE soil.
Pradhan is on a three-day visit to the UAE, which commenced on May 12, to follow up on the February 2018 UAE visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
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