The Hindu Business Line : Indian crude basket breaches $ 110/barrel mark

For the 12th consecutive day the Indian crude basket continued to scorch over the $ 100-a-barrel mark. The Indian crude basket on Tuesday touched a fresh high of $ 110.34 a barrel the highest for the current fiscal.

While this was higher by $1.04 a barrel from that recorded on Monday ($109.30 a barrel), it was almost 75 per cent higher than the lowest price of $ 62.91 a barrel which the Indian basket had touched during the last fiscal.

With the continued volatility in the Indian basket, the under-recoveries incurred by the public sector oil marketing companies (OMCs) on sale of petroleum products – petrol, diesel, cooking gas, and kerosene – have also moved up to about Rs 500 crore per day. The OMCs – Indian Oil Corporation, Hindustan Petroleum Corporation and Bharat Petroleum Corporation – were losing Rs 11.80 per litre on petrol, Rs 17.51 on diesel, Rs 316.06 per cylinder on cooking gas, and Rs 25.23 per litre on kerosene. This is because the OMCs sell products below the cost price.

The Indian crude basket has averaged $ 103.87 per barrel so far this month, up from March average of $ 99.76 a barrel. In 2007-08, it had averaged $ 79.25 per barrel. India’s crude oil basket comprises Oman-Dubai sour (high sulphur) grade crude and Brent dated sweet (low sulphur) crude in a 61.4:38.6 ratio.

Crude oil prices are skyrocketing largely on supply concerns.

With the Indian crude basket staying above $ 100-a-barrel mark the projected revenue loss on fuel sales to be suffered by the OMCs for this fiscal is estimated to be about Rs 1,50,000 crore.

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