The chairman of India’s Hindustan Petroleum Corp Ltd HPCL.NS, Mukesh Surana, said the current ‘high’ crude oil prices could lead to demand destruction in the long run.

Surana said $60-$70 per barrel was a comfortable range for refiners in India, the world’s third biggest oil consumer which imports about 85% of its oil needs.

Oil futures have been trading near multi-year highs due to a global energy supply crunch, with the Brent crude benchmark LCOc1 at $84.30 a barrel on Wednesday.

Surana said Indian refiners were working to trim import costs, with jointly negotiated contracts, allowing for better terms, one of the strategies under discussion.

India is looking to bring together state-run and private refiners to seek better crude import deals, oil secretary Tarun Kapoor told Reuters on Tuesday.

HPCL has restarted the fire-hit crude unit at its Visakhapatnam refinery, Sunara said, adding the group’s three refineries were running at an average 100% capacity.
Source: Reuters (Writing by Sudarshan Varadhan; Editing by Kirsten Donovan)