New Delhi, March 20 (IANS) Upstream oil and services firms are the biggest beneficiaries while downstream and end‑user industries may suffer after recent strikes at Gulf energy facilities disrupted flows and pushed prices sharply higher, a report said on Friday. The report from Systematix Institutional Equities warned of rise in energy prices and disruption of volume which could have a significant impact on energy deficient countries.It said that repairing and restarting supply could be prolonged which would bring long-term pain to the sector.

The firm has removed PLNG from its top picks because the strike in energy facilities could inflict "long‑term pain" on regasified liquefied natural gas companies.India’s crude imports eased to 1.9 million barrels in the week ended March 6, from roughly 25 million barrels per week in February 2026, the report said, citing Bloomberg data.Total LNG export volume declined to 8.6 mmt for the week ending March 7 and to 7.8 mmt in the subsequent week, from about 9.6 million tonnes per week in Feb 2026, largely due to a fall in Qatar’s shipments from 1.7 million tonnes to 0.06 million tonnes.Weekly crude export volumes globally fell to 228 million bbls for the week ended March 7 and to 184 million bbls for the week ended March 14, down from about 268 million barrels per week in February 2026, the report said.

Saudi shipments dropped to 26 million bbls and 12 million bbls in the first and second weeks of March compared to averages of 42 million and 33 million bbls per week in February.Iraq and the UAE also saw sharp declines, while exports from the US rose to 25 million and 32 million bbls. There were no notable changes in the rest of the countries, the report noted.LNG volume from major importers like Japan, South Korea, China and India also declined sharply leading to a sharp increase in prices in recent weeks which doubled from $10/mmbtu to nearly $20/mmbtu, it added.

/IANS