(TOI)
India and China, which together accounted for almost 17% of world oil consumption last year, are working on combining their shopping carts with a view to challenging Opec’s capability to play havoc with crude prices and seek better bargains from the cartel of oil exporting countries, especially its West Asian members.
The two sides kicked off formal talks in Beijing on Monday for forming an oil buyers’ club + . The development is likely to weigh on Opec energy ministers, who are expected to discuss a plan to end the production cut deal later this month. The talks come within less than two months of oil minister Dharmendra Pradhan proposing an alliance between Indian and Chinese state-run oil companies for a greater say in the market. Sources told TOI that the two countries were looking at working together rather than competing. “The timing is right. The boom in US oil and gas production gives us greater leverage against Opec,” an official said.
