Mumbai: Union Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas Ram Naik on March 24 said there was no change in government's contingency plan in the wake of the US-led war on Iraq.

"As of now, we see no reason to change our contingency plan as the circumstances have not changed much," Naik told reporters after inaugurating Asia's first two-day Gas Buyers' Summit.

The minister had last week said the government has since September chalked out plans for increasing the stock of oil products and has enough petrol, diesel, ATF, LPG and other products to last two months.

Referring to sanctity of the agreement of Oil Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) for a block near Basra in case the regime changes in Iraq, he said, "Generally in international agreements, the commitments made by the previous regime are maintained."

On the import bill for crude in 2002-03, he said it would be higher than Rs 78,000 crore incurred in previous fiscal as international prices have gone up compared to those prevailing in FY-02. The price was pegged at $ 19-20 per barrel in March 2002, which now has gone up to over $ 32 per barrel.

During the 1991 Iraq conflict, India had to face several problems, one of which was payment of the import bill, but this time the country has the highest foreign exchange reserves, he said.

Whether petrol and diesel would cost more, he said it would depend upon the average price of crude, which was priced at a lower rate of $ 24 per barrel last week and if the same trend continued, the oil companies would take this into account during fortnightly review of prices.

PTI