OPEC and its partners ignored India’s plea to ease production controls after Saudi Arabia asked New Delhi to use the oil it had purchased last year at rock bottom rates.
Brent crude, the most widely used benchmark after the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and its partners, rose nearly 1% to $ 67.44 a barrel on Friday, a group known as OPEC + Jaya agreed to increase supplies in April. Substantial improvement in demand.
India’s oil minister Dharmendra Pradhan had urged producers’ groups at Thursday’s OPEC meeting to relax production restrictions to fulfill their promise of stable oil prices.
He felt that rising oil prices were affecting economic recovery and demand.
In response to a question on India’s arguments, Saudi Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman said in a press conference after the OPEC + decision on Thursday that New Delhi should take some crude out of storage, which he said last year was very Bought cheaply. India purchased 16.71 million barrels of crude in April-May 2020 and filled all three Strategic Petroleum Reserves made at Visakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh and Mangalore and Padur in Karnataka. According to a written answer in the Rajya Sabha on September 21, 2020, the average cost of that crude purchase was $ 19 per barrel.
Retail petrol and diesel prices, which are already at historic highs, should be passed if oil companies decide to pass on the rise in international oil prices to consumers.
Petrol and diesel prices have remained unchanged for the past five years and oil companies have not revised the revised prices for the crucial assembly elections of 2017 and 2018 ahead of elections in states such as Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat.
Elections are due in West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Pondicherry and Assam in the next few weeks.
Earlier this week, Pradhan said that where fuel demand is recovering from pre-epidemic levels, he wants fair and responsible oil prices.
India, the world’s third-largest oil importer and consumer, supported the cartel OPEC and its partners’ decision to cut production last year in view of declining oil demand due to the outbreak of COVID-19.
“At the time, producers, especially OPEC, had assured the global market that demand would return in early 2021 and production would be as usual. But I regret to say that production is yet to return to normal.” They said. “If you don’t supply properly. If there is a difference in demand and supply (created) artificially, then there is a price increase.” The average price of India imports of crude oil was less than $ 50 per barrel between April and December 2020 and the average rate for 2019-20 is $ 60.47 in the months that followed, but petrol and diesel prices are now at historic highs because The government has so far not taken it back when prices fell nearly a year ago.
Recorded taxes along with international rates returning to pre-COVID levels on revival demand mean that petrol has crossed the 100 mark in some places in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra.
Between March 2020 and May 2020, excise duty on petrol and diesel was increased by ₹ 13 and ₹ 16 per liter and now in Delhi, one-third of the price of petrol is over ₹ 91.17 and ₹ 40 is ₹ 81.47 per liter. Rate of diesel.
The imported crude oil basket averaged $ 61.22 per barrel in February and $ 54.79 in January this year. It fell to $ 19.90 in April last year and between $ 40 to $ 49 during June and December.
India imports around 85% of its oil needs and local retail rates are benchmarked at international prices.
OPEC +, which is currently flashing at around 7 million barrels per day of production – about 7% of pre-pandemic supplies – has helped the Brent benchmark, which has been dated since November, to about 80% growth. Saudi Arabia has voluntarily cut additional 1 million bpd production in February and March.
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