Speaking at a seminar organised by the international association of economic journalists, Mr Naik said that it is a welcome sign that international crude oil prices are settling between the Organisation of Petroleum Exploration Countries' (Opec) preferred band of $ 22-28 a barrel. This, Mr Naik said, will provide relief to oil-importing nations, and expressed the hope that prices would settle down at $ 22-24 a barrel for a sustainable economic development soon.

"India has suffered too much due to the high volatility of international crude prices, which touched $ 37 a barrel in September this year from $ 10.23 a barrel in February 1999," Mr Naik said, while pointing out that the price volatility had much more to do with the demand-supply situation.

Opec had hiked prices thrice this year, but the prices did not seem to settle, Mr Naik said, adding the volatility in the markets might be due to hoarding and gambling and huge quantity of strategic purchases by some countries.

Iraqi Ambassador to India Salah Al-Mukhtar attributed the rise in prices to the "trading game" played by the US, which buys huge quantities of oil when the prices are low for strategic reasons, and then jacks up the prices only to sell the strategic purchases.

The minister said that India has sought special trade discount and deferred payment facilities from Opec for oil import to provide relief from the high crude oil prices to developing countries.

The proposal to mitigate the hardship of developing countries on account of high international crude oil prices includes grant of soft loans by the cash-rich Opec nations and the facility for purchasing nations for deferred payment for their imports, the minister said.

"We are seeking a three-month credit instead of spot payment," Mr Naik said, adding that he had met representatives of eight of the 11 members of Opec recently to seek relief for developing nations.

Mr Naik said: "Opec members were veering round to the idea of a price band of $ 24-28 for a barrel of crude. I do not think that the prices of crude will go up further from the present level." "The very high level of oil prices prevailing in the world market had created tremendous pressure on economies of developing nations. India's oil import bill at Rs 80,000 crore ($ 17.5 billion) will put tremendous pressure on its foreign exchange reserves," he said. Against the consumption of 100 milion tonne of crude oil, production from indigenous sources had been static at around 32 million tonne for the past few years, Mr Naik said, poining to the need for finding more oil resources.

The minister said that 25 oil blocks including eight each in deep waters and shallow waters and nine onland, would be put on block in the second round of new exploration and licensing policy (NELP) before the end of next week.