India agrees to release 5 million barrels of crude oil from its Strategic Petroleum Reserves

New Delhi: India has agreed to release 5 million barrels of crude oil from its Strategic Petroleum Reserves. This release will happen in parallel and in consultation with other major global energy consumers including the USA, China, Japan and South Korea.

Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas in a statement said that India strongly believes that the pricing of liquid hydrocarbons should be reasonable, responsible and be determined by market forces. India has repeatedly expressed concern at supply of oil being artificially adjusted below



demand levels by oil producing countries, leading to rising prices and negative attendant consequences.

The Ministry said that the Prime Minister has been consistently reviewing the high petroleum and diesel prices domestically. It said, in a bid to control inflationary pressures, Government of India had reduced the ‘central excise duty’ on petrol by 5 rupees and diesel by  10  rupees  on 3rd of this month.  It was followed by reduction in VAT on fuel by many state governments.