Photos: Oil prices slump to 17-year low amid corona pandemic

International oil slumped to a 17-year low as coronavirus lockdowns hit major economies, causing demand to contract. In India, petrol and diesel prices have been frozen since March 16. Indian Oil controls 11 of India’s 23 refineries, with a capacity to process 80.7 million tons of crude oil annually, or 1.62 million barrels a day. It also has more than 29,000 fuel stations across the country. India imported about 4.5 million barrels of crude on average each day over the past 12 months with the country’s main suppliers including OPEC members Iraq, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Nigeria. The government raised excise duty on the two fuels by rupess 3 a litre on March 14.

Updated on: Mar 31, 2020 4:56 PM IST

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Pedestrians walk past storage tanks in an Indian Oil Corporation facility near Jawaharlal Nehru Port, operated by the Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (JNPT), in Navi Mumbai. As billions of people stay home in the world’s major economic centres, consumption of everything from transport fuel to petrochemical feedstocks is in free-fall. Refiners that have already been filling up their storage tanks with unsold products now have little choice but to partially shut down their plants. (Dhiraj Singh / Bloomberg)

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A driver boards an edible oil truck parked at Jawaharlal Nehru Port. India’s oil refiners are slashing crude-processing rates as a three-week lockdown to stem the spread of the coronavirus pandemic -- crushes energy demand in the second-most populous country. (Dhiraj Singh / Bloomberg)

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Storage tanks stand at the Reliance industries Ltd. facility near Jawaharlal Nehru Port. International oil has slumped to a 17-year low causing demand to contract. (Dhiraj Singh / Bloomberg)

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Oil and gas rigs are seen offshore from Uran in Maharashtra. Besides reduced demand because of the coronavirus pandemic, an oil price war between Saudi Arabia and Russia has contributed to the plunge in the price of crude. (Dhiraj Singh / Bloomberg)

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Storage tanks stand at the Oil and Natural Gas Corp. (ONGC) plant in Uran. The benchmark Brent crude price on Monday dropped by as much as 6.62% to $23.28 per barrel. (Dhiraj Singh / Bloomberg)

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The government is considering an increase in excise duty on petrol and diesel again to raise additional revenue to fund the battle against Covid-19. (Dhiraj Singh / Bloomberg)

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Oil tankers and trucks sit parked next to storage tanks near the Jawaharlal Nehru Port. The government raised excise duty on the two fuels by three rupees a litre on March 14. A rupee one per litre increase in excise duty on petrol and diesel would mean an additional rupees 14,500 crore in annual revenue to the government. (Dhiraj Singh / Bloomberg)

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A recent research report by State Bank of India (SBI) stated, “We thus strongly recommend that the increased excise revenue from oil should not be used for bridging the fiscal gap and pleasing the markets; rather sound economics demands it must be used as a fiscal package for income support to the people working in the unorganized sector who are already facing the brunt of loss of jobs.” (Dhiraj Singh / Bloomberg)