Drones attacked the world's largest oil processing facility in Saudi Arabia and an oilfield operated by Saudi Aramco early Saturday. Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthi group claimed responsibility. The attacks will cut the kingdom’s output by 5.7 million barrels per day (bpd), according to a statement from state-run oil company which is more than 5 percent of global oil supply.

India’s oil ministry tried to calm frayed nerves and said that Saudi Aramco has assured Indian refiners of no supply shortage. However, oil marketing companies ended lower as Brent skyrocketed 12 percent and BPCL was thus the top Nifty loser on Monday.

Reacting to the news, in an exclusive interview to CNB-TV18, RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das said that the Indian central bank was would like to take time to analyse the consequences.

He however added, “There will be an impact on currencies across the world… depending on how long it persists, it will have some impact on the current account deficit and perhaps on fiscal deficit if it lasts longer.”

Das said that a five percent global supply loss would need deeper analysis and he would wait and see how the Aramco authorities put it (production) back in operation.

“Temporarily there will be some impact… whether this temporary effect will last longer, I think the picture will become clearer in the next few days.”

To read the full transcript of the interview click here

First Published:Sept 16, 2019 6:25 PM IST