India’s diversified crude and product basket was one reason that helped India in avoiding the Saudi Aramco crisis.

Concerns over the price and supply of oil, sparked by the recent terror strikes on Saudi Aramco’s oil infrastructure, have now subsided, Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said on Thursday. Oil marketing companies will now see the price of petrol and diesel coming down soon.

On Thursday, petrol price dropped by 10 paise to Rs 74.51 a litre and diesel by 6 paisa to Rs 67.43 a litre in Delhi, the first reduction since September 8. “At present, there are no concerns. The world has averted a big crisis,” Pradhan said on the sidelines of the India Economic Summit. Sanjiv Singh, IndianOil Corporation chairman, said, “The price in India has started coming down from today. After the attacks on Saudi facilities, product prices were also affected. Gasoline (petrol) and diesel price had gone up.”

India’s diversified crude and product basket was one reason that helped India in avoiding the Saudi Aramco crisis. Because of the shortfall in supply from Saudi Aramco, India was staring at a liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) supply crisis in states like Maharashtra, Karnataka, Punjab and Goa.

Saudi drone strikes: Oil price surges, but govt plays down supply concerns

No supply disruption, says Pradhan; OMCs see margin impact if situation persists

Even as oil prices soared on Monday following the drone attack at Saudi Arabia’s fuel-producing infrastructure at Abqaia and Khurais over the weekend, the Indian government said the country was insulated from any supply shortage.

Oil prices surged the most on record on Monday, with Brent crude oil rising by as much as 19.5 per cent to $71.95 per barrel — the biggest gain in dollar terms since futures started trading in 1988. It later came down to $67.7 per barrel. US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) futures climbed 15.5 per cent to $63.34, the biggest intra-day percentage gain since June 1998. Increasing dependence on Saudi Arabia for crude supply, as India cuts imports from Iran, could be cause for concern.

“Following the attacks on the oil stabilisation centres of Saudi Aramco, top executives of Aramco have been contacted. We have reviewed our overall crude oil supplies for… September with our OMCs (oil-marketing companies),” tweeted Oil Minister Dharmendra Pradhan on Monday. “We are confident there would be no supply disruption to India. We are closely monitoring the evolving situation.”

The attack has knocked out over half of Saudi Arabia’s production as it cut 5.7 million barrels per day or over 5 per cent of the world’s supply. India imports 83 per cent of its oil needs. Saudi Arabia is its second-biggest supplier, providing 40.3 metric tonnes (MT), after Iraq (46.6 MT). Iran is the third-biggest supplier, with 23.9 MT of oil…

Trump says US ‘locked and loaded’ to reply to Saudi oil attack; blames Iran

The Tehran-backed Huthi rebels in Yemen, where a Saudi-led coalition is bogged down in a five-year war, claimed Saturday’s strikes on two plants owned by state energy giant Aramco

President Donald Trump said Sunday the US is “locked and loaded” to respond to an attack on Saudi oil infrastructure that Washington has blamed on Iran, as Riyadh raced to restart operations at plants hit by drone attacks.

It is the first time the president has hinted at a potential American military response to the attack, which slashed Saudi oil production by half and led both the kingdom and the United States to announce they may tap their strategic reserves.

“Saudi Arabia oil supply was attacked. There is reason to believe that we know the culprit, are locked and loaded depending on verification, but are waiting to hear from the Kingdom as to who they believe was the cause of this attack, and under what terms we would proceed!” Trump tweeted.

The Tehran-backed Huthi rebels in Yemen, where a Saudi-led coalition is bogged down in a five-year war, claimed Saturday’s strikes on two plants owned by state energy giant Aramco. But US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo pointed the finger squarely at Tehran, saying there was no evidence the “unprecedented attack on the world’s energy supply” was launched from Yemen…