 "America’s shock! Know how far petrol-diesel prices will go in India now")
The price of crude oil in the international market has reached the highest level in 4 months. While Brent crude is trading at 81 dollars with an increase of 4 percent, WTI has also reached close to 78 dollars. This increase in crude oil prices has come due to the new restrictions imposed by the US on Russia (us sanctions on Russian oil). It is believed that India and China will be affected the most.
Before explaining why this is so, let us know what are the new restrictions?
According to a Reuters report, the US has imposed sanctions on two Russian oil producers, Gazprom Neft and Surgutneftegaz. Apart from this, 183 ships carrying oil have also been banned. Ships carrying crude oil are called Vessels. According to Morgan Stanley, the tankers that have been banned carried an average of 1.5 million barrels of crude oil in 2024. Many of these were used to supply crude oil to India and China.
How much oil came to India?
Of the new vessels banned, 143 carried 530 million barrels of crude oil last year. This was 42 percent of the total crude oil shipped by Russia by sea. Of this, 300 million barrels went to China while the bulk of the remaining oil went to India. In the first 11 months of last year, the import of Russian oil in India increased by 4.5 percent to an average of 17 lakh barrels per day. This was 36 percent of India’s total imports.
What will happen with the ban?
According to sources, due to the new sanctions, India will now have to increase its dependence on the Gulf region, Africa and the US for its crude oil supply. But the problem with this is that petrol from Russia was coming to India at a huge discount, while crude oil prices in the Middle East and Africa have already increased, so it is useless to expect cheap oil from there. An official at an Indian oil refining company told Reuters they had no other option but to look to the Middle East or the US.
What is India’s response?
According to an ET report, an Indian government official says that this is not a problem for India for the next 2 months. In fact, the supply of oil from Russia to India will continue for the next 2 months as India can get oil from ships that left there before January 10. However, India has temporarily banned crude oil trade with Russia.