New Delhi, Mar 14 (IANS): Petroleum Minister Hardeep Puri on Tuesday said that Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) members are bullish on requirement of biofuels and called for sustained negotiations on them.

Addressing media persons after virtually participating in the SCO meeting, he said that biofuels requirement was discussed during the deliberations, and all the eight SCO nations are of the view that there should be sustained discussions on biofuels.

China too had raised the issue of affordability during the discussions, the minister said.

Puri claimed that India is facing several issues on the energy front due to global markets volatility, and as a result of this, oil marketing companies are facing losses.

However, the oil companies have not passed on the higher price to the public, he added.

Fuel prices in the country, he said, have not been touched since May 2022.

"There is still under recovery on diesel for OMCs," Puri added.

Global consumption is expected to rise substantially in the next seven to eight years, he said.

Therefore with rising import dependency domestically, the minister informed that the government has increased the number of countries from which India imports to 39 from 27.