Oil Market

The three countries have been Russia's most reliable buyers of its crude during its ongoing conflict with Ukraine amid sanctions threat, reports said. Shipments of crude oil leaving Russian ports marked for ambiguous locations, seem to be ending up either in India or even to China, reports quoting vessel tracking data said.

At present, five million barrels of petroleum is being consumed in our country every day and it is also increasing by three per cent, which is higher than the global average of nearly one per cent, Puri added. The Union Minister shared this with media at the three-day South Asian Geoscience Conference, GeoIndia 2022, which began at JECC, Sitapura in Rajasthan's Jaipur on Friday.

The reduction equals around 2 per cent of this year's global oil demand, which is estimated by OPEC at around 100 million bpd, Xinhua news agency reported. According to the statement, the decision was made "in light of the uncertainty that surrounds the global economic and oil market outlooks, and the need to enhance the long-term guidance for the oil market, and in line with the successful approach of being proactive, and preemptive".

The OPEC oil cartel and its allies, including Russia, will reportedly consider cutting output by more than 1 million barrels per day (bpd) at a meeting in Vienna on Wednesday, CNN reported. Oil prices climbed by as much as 4 per cent, with benchmark Brent crude futures trading at about $88.60 a barrel on Monday, on expectations that OPEC will try to regain control of prices.

The government also cut tax on Aviation Turbine Fuel (ATF) exports to Rs 8.50 per litre from Rs 9 per litre, according to a gazette notification. Similarly, cess on export of diesel was slashed to Rs 6.50 per litre from Rs 13.50 per litre. The decision came after the fifth fortnightly review of windfall taxes conducted by the Centre.

The losses have been incurred by the OMCs as they absorbed international crude prices, however the report, quoting sources, said that while the Petroleum Ministry had sought a far greater amount, the Finance Ministry agreed only to $2.5 billion as a cash payout.The partial compensation to OMCs has also been planned to rein in cooking gas prices, the Bloomberg report said. It further said, quoting sources, that the discussions on compensation payout are at an advanced stage though a final decision is yet to be taken.

Indian brands such as Fire-Boltt and Noise took top spots in the global market share, as smartwatch market's shipments grew 13 per cent in the June quarter (Q2) amid macro uncertainties such as inflation and geopolitical conflicts, according to Counterpoint Research. "As expected, China's economic slowdown resulted in a YoY decline in its market, with major Chinese brands such as Huawei, imoo and Amazfit seeing limited YoY growth or decline," said Associate Director Sujeong Lim.

Noise was second with a 26 per cent share (best-selling brand in online channels) and boAt, together with its sub-brands, maintained the third place with a 19 per cent share, according to Counterpoint Research. Online channels contributed 67 per cent to the total shipment volume with Amazon as the leader. "India's Smartwatch shipments grew by 4 times annually in Q2 2022, with Fire-Boltt leading.

The oil alliance said on Thursday in its monthly report that the world economy is expected to grow by 3.1 per cent in 2022, compared to its forecast of 3.5 per cent in the previous three months. Explaining the downward revision, OPEC cited "weaker second-quarter growth in the major economies and an observed soft trend in some key economies". In its May report, OPEC had already lowered its forecast for global economic growth this year from 3.9 to 3.5 per cent. This projection was maintained until July, Xinhua news agency reported.

Last week the Gujarat government announced that it will provide groundnut oil of one liter pack at Rs 100, at 50 per cent subsidised rates. Yet, the prices of edible oil are seeing an upward trend and the people are not getting any respite. On Tuesday, 17-liter groundnut oil tin price was quoted Rs 2,850, the highest in this calendar year so far. Palm oil is trading at Rs 2,050 for 17-liter tin. The reason behind this is that most of the oil processing units are closed as there is no stock of groundnut in the market and the imports of palm crude oil were opened after a short break.