Oil Market

It represents a 46.5 per cent rise for the state-owned company, compared with last year, BBC reported. It is the latest energy firm to report record profits, after energy prices spiked following Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. America's Exxon Mobil made $55.7 bn, and Britain's Shell reported $39.9 bn, BBC reported.

The price cap of $60 per barrel on sale of Russian crude was imposed by the G7 group of nations, Australia and the EU on December 5, 2022, and doesn't allow countries to pay more than $60 per barrel for purchasing Russian oil. However, sources claim that as India is not willing to follow the price cap, oil marketing companies like HPCL are facing payment issues.

Analysts expected a hike of 0.321 million barrels for this week. The API reported a drop of 2.184 million barrels in the previous week. Oil prices fell on Tuesday after the United States said it would release more crude from its Strategic Petroleum Reserve, Xinhua reported.

According to the OPEC's "World Oil Outlook 2045" report, released during the ongoing India Energy Week here on Tuesday, besides India, fairly robust growth during this period is also projected for African and other Asian countries where economic progress, urbanisation, industrialisation, and vehicle fleet expansion will be fastest among all regions.

According to the report, the US Treasury officials have two main goals: to keep the market well supplied and to prevent Russia from earning oil revenue. They are aware that Indian and Chinese refiners can make more money by buying discounted Russian crude and exporting the refined products at market prices. This is seen as an acceptable arrangement.

The OPEC+ agreed in October 2022 to cut production by 2 million barrels per day from the following month until the end of 2023. The cut equals to about 2 per cent of the annual global oil demand, Xinhua news agency reported.

The average price for Iraqi crude oil in January was $75.96 per barrel, the ministry said in a statement, citing statistics from the State Organization for Marketing of Oil, Xinhua news agency reported. About 98.46 million barrels were exported from oil fields in central and southern Iraq via the port of Basra, while more than 2 million barrels from the northern province of Kirkuk via the Turkish port of Ceyhan on the Mediterranean, the statement said.

Addressing media persons during an event in Varanasi, Puri said: "I will hope if under-recoveries end, prices should come down." Fuel prices have not been hiked since the past 15 months now by the three OMCs, namely Indian Oil Corporation (IOC), Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd (BPCL), and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd (HPCL).

The report forecast that global production of liquid fuels will reach an average of 102.8 million barrels per day (b/d) in 2024, up from 100 million b/d in 2022, driven by large growth in non-OPEC production, reports Xinhua news agency. However, uncertainty over Russia's oil supply will persist, particularly in early 2023, the report noted, expecting global consumption of liquid fuels will rise from an average of 99.4 million b/d in 2022 to 102.2 million b/d in 2024.

He said that India has been able to navigate through the most formidable energy crisis the world has seen since the 1973 oil crisis thanks to its energy security strategy focussing on diversification of energy supplies, increasing India's exploration and production footprint, and meeting energy transition through gas-based economy, Green Hydrogen and electric vehicles.