India’s oil minister said higher crude prices would only serve to accelerate the transition to cleaner energy and worsen any global recession.
“If you raise the price from here, the only response is that the recession will be deeper and prolonged,” Hardeep Singh Puri said to Bloomberg TV at the Adipec energy conference in Abu Dhabi. “It’s in their interest not to let it go beyond” current levels, he said, referring to producers.
US companies’ investment in new energy supply is “just not enough,” Amos Hochstein, President Joe Biden’s special envoy for energy, said. They spoke after Claudio Descalzi, chief executive officer of Eni, warned that Europe will have to rely on America to make up for a loss of oil supplies from Russia next year.
The world’s biggest oil and gas companies and energy ministers from Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and India are meeting in Abu Dhabi this week. Running from Oct. 31 to Nov. 3, Adipec comes in the wake of OPEC+ opting to cut crude production, a move that led to fierce criticism from the US. Oil prices have climbed in the past two weeks, with Brent trading around $94 a barrel.