India s Petroleum Imports-An Econometric Analysis

India's Petroleum Imports An Econometric Analysis Bishwanath Goldar Hiranya Mukhopadhyay The paper presents an econometric analysis of India's petroleum imports. For this purpose, demand functions have been estimated for various petroleum products, and an import function has been estimated for petroleum. The results of the analysis indicate that the gap between domestic demand for petroleum products and domestic production of crude oil is the main determinant of petroleum imports. International price of petroleum and the foreign exchange availability also exert some influence on the government's decision to import petroleum. An important finding of the study is that both domestic demand for petroleum products and import demand for petroleum are not much responsive to price changes.