In India Covid-19 cases are rising rapidly and for
the first time the Central government issued the warning that the next four
weeks will be critical for the country.
There is an exponential growth in the state of
Maharashtra where the commercial capital is and New Delhi, the capital of the
country.
In response, the government says that accelerated
testing and vaccine programmes are underway; India has been vaccinating its
citizens for some time, yet infections are surging as most people just drop
their guard, especially in social events and gatherings.
Although state-wide lockdowns are not imminent, the authorities
will run out of options if the rate of infections continues to rise at this
rate.
As an inevitable outcome, the road traffic will come
down and demand for fossil fuels will follow the pattern in proportion; since
the world’s third largest consumer imports 80% of oil, it will have an impact
on the buyers, especially from the Middle East, as well.
To make matters worse for the buyers, India is to
cut 36% of its oil import from Saudi Arabia, starting from May in response to
the recent price hike by the latter to Asia; the two sides were involved in a
verbal spat over the production cuts and it shows no sign of abating – at present.
The upsurge of the pandemic in India has the
potential to make the global oil price
fluctuate, owing to the sheer size of its oil imports; this is something that
we can expect in the next weeks.
