Wednesday (September 18): As a result of fallout of turmoil in global oil markets following the drone attacks on Saudi Arabian crude oil facilities, petrol and diesel prices have seen the steepest hike today by 24-25 paise per litre since July 5 Union Budget.
This is the biggest single-day hike since the July 5 Budget day when Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had raised rates by almost ₹2.50 a litre due to an increase in excise duty on the fuels.
Following the drone strikes on Saturday, international oil prices rallied nearly 20% on Monday in intraday trading — the biggest jump in almost 30 years — as the attacks halved Saudi Arabia’s output.
According to price information available from state-owned fuel retailers, petrol price was increased by 25 paise per litre to ₹72.42 and diesel by 24 paise to ₹65.82 in the Delhi market, which is sort of a national benchmark. The hike today followed a 14 paise a litre increase in price of petrol on Tuesday and 15 paise per litre rise in diesel rate.
Rates have in subsequent two days retreated, conceding about half of the gains. Brent crude future on Wednesday dipped 0.26% to $64.38 per barrel after jumping to near $72 in reaction to the disruption. US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude lost 0.5% to $59.06 per barrel.
This came after signs that Saudi Arabia was quickly restoring production at Abqaiq facility.
Abqaiq is now processing about 2 million barrels a day and should return to pre-attack levels of about 4.9 million barrels by the end of September, Saudi Aramco chief executive Amin Nasser said.
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has reportedly stated that two-thirds of production has been restored and the kingdom sees a full recovery in 10 days.
Oil Minister Dharmendra Pradhan on Tuesday said India, the world’s third-largest oil consumer, is keeping a close watch on the developing situation.
India imports 83% of its oil needs, with Saudi Arabia supplying a fifth of these. Saudi Arabia is its second-biggest supplier after Iraq. It sold 40.33 million tonne of crude to India in 2018-19 fiscal, when the country had imported 207.3 million tonne of oil.
