The Minister of State for Petroleum and Natural Gas, Dharmendra Pradhan visited Doha, Qatar on November 9-10, 2015 to attend the 6th Asian Ministerial Energy Roundtable, which was organized by Governments of Qatar and Thailand in association with the International Energy Forum.
Shri Pradhan addressed the roundtable on the theme “Oil markets: a new normal or just another cycle, and what it means for Asia”.
The Roundtable was attended by Energy Ministers and high-level delegations from twenty Asian countries and Heads of six international organizations.
In his address the Minister laid emphasis on the need for Oil suppliers to make earnest efforts for a Responsible & Reasonable Pricing, which should be sustainable so that “Energy Poverty” gives way to “Energy Justice” in countries like India.
He asked for greater transparency and balance in the Oil market to ensure that fiscal positions of countries like India are not unduly stretched due to rising prices.
He also reiterated the demand to end the practice of charging “Asian Premium” and instead provide “Asian Dividend” to countries like India.
He advocated that to achieve a more stable oil market large buyers and large sellers of oil need to develop mutual investment linkages.
On the margins of the roundtable Shri Pradhan called on Prime Minister of Qatar and later held a separate meeting with his Qatari counterpart.
He also held bilateral meetings with his counterparts from Saudi Arabia, Bangladesh, Russia, UAE, Malaysia and Brunei during which existing relations and future possibilities of cooperation were discussed. He also held a meeting with Secretary General of IEF.
The International Energy Forum (IEF) aims to foster greater mutual understanding and awareness of common energy interests among its members.
The 74 Member Countries of the Forum are signatories to the IEF Charter, which outlines the framework of the global energy dialogue through this inter-governmental arrangement.
Covering all six continents and accounting for around 90% of global supply and demand for oil and gas, the IEF is unique in that it comprises not only consuming and producing countries of the IEA and OPEC, but also Transit States and major players outside of their memberships, including Argentina, China, India, Mexico, Oman, Russia and South Africa.
The Forum’s biennial Ministerial Meetings are the world’s largest gathering of Energy Ministers.
The IEF and the global energy dialogue are promoted by a permanent Secretariat of international staff based in the Diplomatic Quarter of Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
