Link to Irina Slav. I linked this story earlier; said I might post it as a stand-alone. What caused the Saudi-India oil rift?
Saudi raised its prices for oil shipped to India.
In response to the Saudi price hike, New Delhi told its refiners to reduce their orders for Saudi oil for May, which they promptly did. Indian refiners will now buy 36 percent less Saudi crude next month than earlier planned. That would amount to some 9.5 million barrels in total for four big state-owned refiners: Indian Oil Corp, Bharat Petroleum Corp, Hindustan Petroleum Corp, and Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals.
This compares with 10.8 million barrels planned to be purchased before the price hike, but it also compares with an average monthly import rate of 14.8 million barrels from Saudi Arabia for the four refiners.
The ball seems to have landed in the Saudi court.
Something tells me this story has legs. I'm sure we'll be hearing about it again.
Daily imports:
- 9 million bbls / 30 days = 300,000 bopd.
- 12 million bbls / 30 days = 400,000 bopd.
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Video Worth 10,000 Words
I assume this link will break eventually. The link: https://sports.yahoo.com/top-buzzer-beaters-memphis-grizzlies-041400938.html.
The video is of an extraordinary shot in an NBA game the other night.
The shot was interesting but the point of the post is to point out a couple of things.
First, this is an NBA game. Note how full the stands are. I believe there are more folks on the court than in the stands. Can you imagine how much money these venues are losing? And the television audience? Except for hardcore NBA fans, I can't imagine many folks actually watching these games on television.
Second, check out the "masks" and social distancing. LOL.
It's a market. Saudis can sell elsewhere. (Especially given they are already constraining supply...not like they are desperate). And of course the Indians can buy elsewhere. What we are talking about is pennies on the dollar in terms of impact.
ReplyDeleteMy take is the Saudis are more likely to take a small negative impact (pennies remember) for a geopolitical reason. And the Indians are just going to go to whoever is cheapest. Both are notorious for this. Probably the Saudis think China is more important as a political player. And they think (correctly) the Indians are just price customers. And will be back if they need them.
You are so correct. I think you implied if, if not I inferred it: if they have to choose, the Saudis will choose China over India. Very, very geopolitical.
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