Oil prices fell on Tuesday as fears of prolonged outage of the largest U.S. fuel pipeline system, Colonial Pipeline, faded, while some U.S. Gulf Coast refiners cut output.
U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures fell 61 cents, or 0.94%, to $64.31 a barrel at 0512 GMT, after gaining 2 cents on Monday.
India's top state oil refiners are reducing processing runs and crude imports as the surging COVID-19 pandemic has cut fuel consumption, leading to higher product stockpiles at the plants, company officials told Reuters on Tuesday.
Indian Oil Corp (IOC.NS), the country's biggest refiner, has reduced runs to an average of between 85% and 88% of processing capacity, a company official said, adding runs could be cut further as its plants at Gujarat, Mathura and Panipat are facing problems storing bitumen and sulphur.
IOC's refineries were operating at about 95% of their capacity in late April.
"We do not anticipate that our crude processing would be reduced to last year's level of 65%-70% as inter-state vehicle movement is still there ... (the) economy is functioning," he said.
· U.S. pump prices head for highest since 2014 as hacked fuel pipeline shut
U.S. gasoline prices at the pump jumped 6 cents in the latest week, according to the American Automobile Association (AAA), and could soon be headed for the highest level since 2014 due to a cyber attack that shut down the country’s biggest fuel pipeline system.
Average U.S. pump prices increased 6 cents per gallon in the latest week to $2.967 per gallon for regular unleaded gasoline, the AAA said. An increase of 3 more cents would make the national average the most expensive since November 2014.
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