Saudi Arabia has halted production of more than half of its crude exports after one of the world’s largest oil processing facilities in Abqaiq was attacked on Saturday.
The export freeze impacts 5% of the world’s daily crude production, most of which is imported by Asian countries. This has led to a massive surge in oil prices and questions about supply shortages. Here's a look at India’s preparedness to deal with the crisis.
19-year high
Never in the last 19 years has the crude price surged this high over two successive days.
The graph shows the percentage change in intra-day highs over two successive days in Brent Futures, a crude oil benchmark. Last Friday, it touched an intra-day high of $60.81 per barrel. On Monday it surged by 18.32% to reach $71.95.
Dependency factor
The graph shows India’s crude oil imports as a share of the country’s total need across years. In FY19, 87% of India’s crude oil needs was met through imports.
Iraq was India’s primary source of crude oil between January and July 2019; Saudi Arabia was a close second. The graph shows share of India’s crude imports by country in this period.
Contingency measures
The graph shows the location of India’s strategic oil reserves, their capacity and their current storage levels as reported by Reuters on Monday. If filled to capacity, they can help meet around 9.5 to 12 days of the country’s oil needs. They are currently at 55%.
The graph shows share of commodities compared to India’s total cost incurred on imports in 2018-19. Crude oil was the biggest import component. Reports suggest that a $1 increase in crude price may increase the import bill by ₹10,700 crore annually.
