• The UAE, OPEC’s third biggest crude producer, said it is committed to meeting India’s energy demand as the growing oil consumer seeks to secure supplies with prices surging to near $100/b.
• The UAE is one of India’s key energy providers and remains committed to meeting India’s growing energy demand and is proud to have been the first international partner to invest by way of crude oil in India’s Strategic Petroleum Reserves Program,” the statement said. “Indian companies have steadily increased their participation across the entire UAE’s energy sector and represent some of Abu Dhabi’s key concession and exploration partners.”
• The new economic partnership agreement between the UAE and India comes at a time when high oil prices are hurting oil consumers such as India, the world’s third-biggest crude importer and consumer, which meets around 85% of its domestic energy demand via imports.

Oil price swings

• Crude prices are at near-eight-year highs, with S&P Global Platts assessing Dated Brent at $97.35/b on Feb. 18. Two days earlier, it had breached the $100/b threshold for the first time since September 2014.
• India has complained several times to OPEC over the past year about rising prices and has in recent days been taking up the issue bilaterally with the bloc’s members, junior oil minister Rameswar Teli told the lower house of the Indian parliament on Feb. 7.
• Indian oil demand was expected to reach 11 million b/d by 2045, compared with 4.9 million b/d in 2021, he said, referring to a projection of OPEC’s World Oil Outlook 2021.
• India’s oil demand rose 3.7% year on year to 201 million mt, or 4.3 million b/d, in 2021, the oil ministry data showed, reflecting a rise in transportation fuel consumption after the delta variant hit its economy in 2020.

Lower crude imports

• India has set a target to cut crude imports by 10% with a multi-prone strategy by increasing domestic crude production, focusing on renewables and ethanol blending program by 2025.
• India’s crude imports rose 3.9% year on year to 209.6 million mt, or 4.2 million b/d, in 2021, oil ministry data showed, riding on recovery in domestic fuel demand after two years.
• The UAE’s Abu Dhabi National Oil Co. is the only overseas company with any capacity in India’s strategic petroleum reserves, holding about 750,000 mt under a government-to-government deal that sees ADNOC supply crude to SPR locations at Padur and Mangalore in Karnataka in southern India.
• India’s SPR has a combined capacity of 5.33 million mt, with Padur the largest at 2.50 million mt, followed by Mangalore at 1.50 million mt and a third location at Visakhapatnam at 1.33 million mt.