Don’t ask, it’s crude

A few weeks ago, I lamented in these columns about the opacity that cloaks our country’s flip-flopping rice export policy. This year-ender piece is devoted to the darkness that covers equally mundane matters, like the import of crude oil.

Recently, the Petroleum and Natural Gas Ministry (MoP&NG) told a department-related parliamentary standing committee that our decision to ramp up oil imports from Russia, since mid-2022, has benefited all of humanity. Or else, international crude oil prices would have shot up by $30-40/barrel. As crude oil imports are required to meet 85% of the domestic demand, we, the citizens of India, may take pride in having contributed to market stability ‘globally’, by acting ‘locally’.

However, do we know enough about these matters to dismiss the claims of some investigative reporters such as ‘poppycock’ -- that Europe also benefits big from the oil processed in our refineries? No, we don’t, because MoP&NG’s Petroleum and Planning Analysis Cell (PPAC) has removed crucial data tables from its website. Earlier, PPAC used to proactively disclose the list of source countries of crude oil and the average price per barrel India used to pay.

In October, RTI applications were filed with the public sector oil majors HPCL, BPCL and IOCL, seeking proactive online disclosure of the details of foreign suppliers registered with them, the price at which they sold crude oil along with month-wise quantities, copies of purchase contracts, bills of entry and details of the insurance cover purchased and paid for every shipment. Surely, we as consumers have the right to know, no?

BPCL rejected the entire request on grounds of commercial confidence. HPCL said all that information was a ‘trade secret’ of strategic importance and that disclosure would adversely affect the competitive position of third parties in the high-stakes international market.

Rubbing it in, HPCL also said that disclosure of such information would not serve any larger public interest. But to its credit, the company furnished month-wise data of crude oil imported since January 2022. IOCL wrote back asking for the supporting document that accompanied the RTI application. As I had attached none, I resent a copy of the RTI application. Two months have passed; they are yet to make a decision.

MoP&NG’s was the best response. Replying to a similar request for information about crude oil imported by the two major private companies -- Reliance and Nayara -- the Ministry claimed, it did not have the information at all. PPAC also sent a reply pointing to the only data tables displayed on its website -- current and historical aggregates of oil import and processing volumes.

These rejections are intriguing because foreign journalists seem to have access to quite a bit of the information described above, from international websites that sell shipping data, etc., for a price. But we are denied access by our own government in the age of RTI. Without such information, how can conscientious citizens alert the government about any change in the price of a shipping consignment between what was declared at the port of landing, abroad, and what is disclosed at the port of delivery, here?

Readers will recall how, not too long ago, foreign media broke a similar story about pricing discrepancies with regard to coal imported through a private company. Allegedly, the price got jacked up while cruising the bobbing high seas.

Citizens require actionable information to be able to speak truth to power, as the Hon’ble Chief Justice of India exhorts repeatedly. Surely, in the era of ‘minimum government’, ‘maximum governance’ cannot be achieved by suppressing the people’s right to know. If information about oil trade is not a matter of public interest, what is?