Indian refiners eye windfall from Urals oil drop: Will motorists benefit?

Indian refiners may face a windfall this year from falling Urals oil rates even as US levies sanctions on Russian firms. Will motorists benefit?

European benchmark Brent climbed by 3 per cent this year to above $77 a barrel in response to a harsh northern hemisphere winter and prospects of new US sanctions. This may worry Indian policymakers, who would probably be burning the midnight oil to prepare India's Union Budget for 2025-26. But the uptick in crude oil prices may well be a smokescreen.    

Moving forward, Indian refiners could be staring at huge savings from cheap Russian oil, though whether state oil marketing companies will let motorists share in the largesse by way of lower pump prices is uncertain. 

The prognosis is