BLBG:Indian Oil’s Goyal Says Crude May Decline After U.S. Downgrade Q
P.K. Goyal, finance director at Indian Oil Corp., the nation’s biggest refiner, expects crude prices to decline further, following Standard & Poor’s downgrade of the U.S. credit rating.
Oil plunged in New York after the downgrade, which stoked concern that an economic slowdown in the world’s biggest crude consumer will worsen and cut fuel demand. S&P said on Aug. 5 that it had cut the U.S.’s AAA rating to AA+.
Crude for September delivery fell as much as $3.20 to $83.68 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange, and was at $84.00 at 1:32 p.m. Sydney time.
Goyal spoke by telephone from Colombo, Sri Lanka.
On crude oil prices:
“Sentiment is low across the world, so I think that will result in oil prices falling further. We hope it comes down further as this helps us reduce our costs.
‘‘Oil needs to stabilize and we need lower prices for a longer period for us to really benefit. We have to see what oil does over the next month or so.
‘‘On the whole, I am happier today than I was a couple of weeks ago.’’
To contact the reporter on this story: Rakteem Katakey in New Delhi at rkatakey@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Amit Prakash at aprakash1@bloomberg.net
