 NEW DELHI: India, which imports most of its crude oil needs, called yesterday for the development of an Asian petroleum market with trading exchanges to serve the region's fast-growing economies and soften price volatility. "It's essential we develop a sophisticated Asian market for petroleum and petroleum products" to ensure supply stability and reduce price volatility, Indian Oil Minister Mani Shankar Aiyar told a regional energy conference. India, which has a vital interest in stable oil markets as it sources 70 per cent of its crude oil needs abroad, hosted the one-day meeting in the Indian capital to promote supply security through regional linkages. Booming economic growth has turned Asia into one of the main buyers of Gulf oil but a lack of partnerships between producers and consumers has made Asian nations vulnerable to global oil price volatility, participants said. But at least one country said there was more oil in the market than needed.
"The market is oversupplied. There is no doubting it," Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanghaneh told reporters after the meeting with Asian colleagues in New Delhi.
Other key fuel-guzzling nations such as China, Japan and South Korea also attended the forum along with oil-producers such as Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Qatar, Oman, the UAE as well as Malaysia. India's Aiyar also urged setting up strategic storages and mutual investments to promote supply security. He said a regional market would spur transparent pricing, allow for derivatives trading and reflect "the real role in the global oil economy of Asian production, Asian consumption and Asian trade." Zanghaneh said an "Asian crude market" could be formed through sustained dialogue. |