Indian oil minister, Sudini Jaipal Reddy: 

• “Higher oil prices raise the cost of fertilizers, hence the cost of food, thus hitting hard the poorest economies and the poorest within those poor economies”.
• “High oil prices lead to domestic inflation, increased import cost, higher interest rates and slow economic growth”.  
• “A sustained $10/b increase in the oil Price leads to a 1.5 reduction in the GDP of developing countries”.

• Warns of the risk of a “sharp demand destruction in the second half of the year”.

• Will invest $280 Bn over five years in 166 upstream projects to increase crude output capacity. These projects will provide a net increase in crude and condensates output of around 7 Mn b/d.

• Expects its production capacity of 3 Mn b/d to rise to 3.4 Mn b/d by the end of this year. A further capacity increase of 500,000 b/d in 2013 and an additional increase of 700,000 b/d in 2014 will take capacity to 4.5 Mn b/d by the year 2015              

• UAE is making investments to increase its crude capacity by 200,000 b/d by the end of 2012.

• Kuwait “will spend some $170 Bn over the next 10 years” to meet its “2020-30 vision” of reaching capacity of 4 Mn b/d, “starting in 2020 and going on to 2030”.

• Has built up 80 Mn barrels of domestic crude inventories and 10 Mn barrels of stocks abroad in a bid to convince the market that it is serious about meeting any increased demand for its crude from buyers.

• The EU imports more than 80 percent of its oil needs and “even with our energy efficiency and broader energy base strategy this figure may increase up to 90 percent or more within 10 years”.

• The growth of U.S. unconventional oil and natural gas is one limit to OPEC’s influence.

IRANIAN OIL Exports
Iranian oil exports have dropped by over 40 percent over the past six months. Oil prices have also dropped due to global economic worries, which has further hurt the finances of the Islamic Republic. In addition to previous data on reduced imports Reuters informed that Turkey's crude oil imports from Iran dropped by more than 35 percent in May from April .

25th June, 2012
Oil is on track to post its biggest quarterly fall since the financial crisis in 2008 as the eurozone crisis and weak growth in the United States roil global markets, while ample supply from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries has added to the downward pressure on prices. 

“Another round of European sovereign debt issues ... and bearish fundamentals have already started to weigh on oil prices", Morgan Stanley said in a research note.

"If OPEC production continues at today's levels, stocks would build above normal through the third quarter and supply would outstrip demand in 2012.”

The EU’s sanctions against Iran, including a ban on oil imports and a ban on the provision of insurance for tankers shipping Iranian oil, will come into force as planned on 1st July, the EU's foreign affairs chief Catherine Ashton said today. In a statement, Ashton said there would be no review of the already agreed sanctions. “There is no change in terms of how we’re going forward on July 1st,” she said. “The sanctions that have been agreed will be implemented”, Platts reports.

For its part, Bloomberg informed that oil traded below $80 a barrel for a third day in New York amid concern that Europe's debt crisis will curb demand for fuels. Futures slid as much as 1.2 percent as George Soros warned that a failure by European Union leaders meeting this week to produce drastic measures could spell the demise of the bloc’s shared currency. Developed economies are running into the limits of monetary policy, the Bank for International Settlements said in its annual report yesterday.

All of this news comes amidst a report by UPI that a stagnant U.S. economy and trouble in the eurozone is keeping demand for fuel products at lower levels, an economist from trade group API said. The American Petroleum Institute stated that U.S. gasoline demand for the first five months of the year was down 0.6 percent compared with the same period last year. API Chief Economist John Felmy said part of the slump in demand may be attributed to better fuel efficiency but most of it was because of a weak economy.