ONGC, the country’s top oil explorer, accepted bids at that level through auction of light sweet oil from its western offshore field, including supplies from the country’s flagship Mumbai High fields, they said. In June India abolished a rule that said oil from blocks awarded prior to 1999 must be sold to government-nominated customers, mostly state refiners. That meant producers such as ONGC and Oil India often sold oil from those blocks at below market rates. Oil prices steady on prospect of balancing supply after steep selloff Oil steadied in early Asian trade on Tuesday as indications that producer alliance OPEC+ sought to avoid a collapse in prices, along with a slight softening in the US dollar, tempered an earlier selloff.
Brent crude futures rose 26 cents, or 0.3 percent, to $84.32 per barrel by 0033 GMT, while US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures were up 19 cents at $76.90 per barrel. Both benchmarks sank by about $2 a barrel on Monday, largely on US dollar strength. Iraq Oil Minister Ihsan Abdul Jabbar on Monday said the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and allies including Russia, known as OPEC+, were monitoring the oil price situation, wanting to maintain balance in the markets. Weakening rupee to make import of crude oil, other commodities expensive With rupee sliding to a historic low to a dollar will make import of crude oil and other commodities expensive, further fuelling inflation which for the past several months has remained above the Reserve Bank’s upper tolerance level of six percent