Petroleum prices will come down as winter ends: Dharmendra Pradhan

VARANASI: Allaying concerns of people over the upward spiralling of fuel price, Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan on Friday said the price will decrease as winter season ends.

"Increase in petroleum price in international market has affected consumers too. Prices will come down a little as winter goes away. It is an international matter, price is high due to increase in demand, it happens in winter. It will come down as the season ends," Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan

Petroleum, Natural Gas and Steel Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, in an exclusive interview with ANI, explained why the North-eastern Region (NER) which includes Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Tripura and Sikkim are important for oil and gas sector of the country.

"The first oil deposits in the country were discovered near the town of Digboi and Duliajan areas of Assam and around 18 per cent of the country's oil resources are located in the northeast east region (NER). Assam, Arunachal, Nagaland, Mizoram, Tripura are the areas that are full of oil and gas fields. When the Modi government came in power in 2014 we decided to create an infrastructure of the crude pipeline, gas pipeline, increase our exploration, refining and gas production capacity," he said earlier.

Prices of LPG, petrol and diesel have been repeatedly hiked in the country. Opposition parties held protests in different parts of the country over the rise of prices of diesel and petrol.