'Current oil price slide will not continue'

New Delhi, Dec 15: The current free fall in global oil prices where the Indian basket of crude oils has plunged below $35 a barrel will not continue, the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) said on Tuesday. “The current price situation will not continue... there will be less supply coming to the market. Over the past year, there has been a reduction of $130 billion in investments for fresh production,” OPEC secretary general Abdalla Salem el-Badri told reporters here. “Supplies are declining at the rate of 400,000 barrels a day,” Badri said, following the first ever India-OPEC institutiol dialogue decided in June at the OPEC’s Vien meeting in which India participated.

“India has conveyed to OPEC its need for reasoble and responsible pricing of oil and this is an ongoing dialogue,” Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said. “By not cutting production and keeping prices low, OPEC is helping countries like India,” he added. (IANS)