The Hindu Business Line : Indian crude basket touches new high

New Delhi, July 16 With steep rise in international crude prices, the Indian crude basket which comprises Oman-Dubai sour grade crude and Brent dated sweet crude, also touched a new high of $73.75 a barrel on Friday up 30 cents per barrel from the previous day ($73.45 per barrel). This was the highest of this fiscal (April to date) and just $1.45 away from the all-time high of $75.20 a barrel in the previous fiscal.

The current financial year average (April to date) stood at $67.30 a barrel. Analysts feel that the coming months would see strong crude, as second quarter is a good consumption period in the US and inventory is down. The mismatch in demand and supply could see higher crude prices. This, however, was not positive for State-owned oil marketing companies, unless rupee further appreciates, an analyst told Business Line.

The under-realisation suffered by oil marketing companies for selling petroleum products below the cost price has also gone up. The under-recovery on petrol for the first fortnight of July stood at Rs 5.90 per litre, and diesel was at Rs 4.80 a litre. The revenue loss suffered by oil marketing companies on kerosene stood at Rs 14.65 per litre and that on cooking gas stood at Rs 189.15 per cylinder.

The Indian basket comprises Oman-Dubai sour grade crude and Brent dated sweet crude in 59.8:40.2 ratio with effect from April 1, 2006. Brent crude on Friday closed at $79.02 per barrel, up 37 cents.

Dubai oil prices closed higher at $69.98 per barrel, up 18 cents from Thursday and Oman settled at $70.42 per barrel, up 32 cents.

As per data available, the Indian basket has averaged $72.11 in July so far, against $68.19 per barrel in June and $65.74 in May.