Vaccine rollout, gradual revival pushed crude prices above $50 per barrel: Report

Mumbai, Jan 9 : The rollout of Covid-19 vaccines coupled with a gradual revival in demand has enabled crude oil prices to surge above $50 per barrel level in December 2020 for the first time in FY21, India Ratings and Research (Ind-Ra) said in a report.
Besides, the report said the 1 million barrel per day (mb/d) production cut announced by Saudi Arabia against the combined 75,000b/d increase granted to Russia and Kazakhstan for February and March 2021 would support the prices in the coming months.
“Ind-Ra believes that any further increase in crude oil price remains susceptible to the successful rollout of a vaccine globally along with effective containment of virus mutations,” it said.
The agency also pointed out that domestic crude production fell 4.9 per cent year-on-year (yoy) in November.
“During the month, the production volumes of Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Limited, Oil India Limited and fields under production-sharing contracts decreased 1.5 per cent yoy, 6.5 per cent yoy and 12.6 per cent yoy, respectively.
“Domestic production remained stable month on month (mom) during the month. On a cumulative basis, a fall of 5.6 per cent yoy in domestic crude production was registered during April-November 2020,” the report said.