$60 a barrel ideal oil price for India as it will bring investments: HPCL

The decision by Opec came after major consumers like the United States, China and India urged the oil producing lobby to raise the supply of crude oil to avert an oil deficit

On a day the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) and its allies declared a modest increase in production, state-run Hindustan Petroleum Corporation (HPCL) indicated on Saturday though the move would stabilise prices, India as a consumer would like to see a further rise in supply to the market.
 
M K Surana, chairman and managing director, HPCL, told Business Standard that $60 a barrel would be the ideal crude oil price for India as it would bring investments to the upstream sector. “For India, it will be good to have a lower price regime. The current move will stabilise the market. But a difference of opinion among Opec players has led to speculations in the market,” Surana said.
 
The decision by Opec came after major consumers like the US, China and India urged the lobby to raise the supply of crude oil to avert a deficit. On Saturday, major producers outside Opec, including Mexico and Kazakhstan, met ministers from the cartel and endorsed a nominal output increase of 1 million barrels a day, said Ecuador’s Minister of Hydrocarbons Carlos Perez. In real terms, that would add 600,000 to 700,000 barrels a day of crude to the market over six months.
 
Friday’s Opec agreement was a fudge in the time-honoured tradition of the group, committing to boost output without saying which countries would increase or by how much. “Earlier, the cut in production was more than the mandated because of a decline in production in countries like Venezuela. It is not clear whether the 1 million bpd increase is from the current level or from the level decided earlier,” Surana said.
 
With inputs from Bloomberg