Indian crude basket increases to $60.27 a barrel
06 Mar 2007
New Delhi: The price of Indian crude oil basket rose 21 cents on Friday, compared to the price a day before. The crude basket, which touched the highest level of this year on March 1 at $60.06 a barrel, went up to $60.27 per barrel on Friday.
This will increase under-recoveries of the state-owned oil marketing companies, which sell petroleum products at below cost price or subsidised rates.
The Indian basket comprises Oman-Dubai sour grade crude and Brent dated sweet crude in 58:42 ratio.
Last Friday, Brent was up 6 cents at $61.76 a barrel from the previous day. Dubai benchmark rose by 28 cents to $59.11 a barrel, while Oman crude stood at $59.43 per barrel up 35 cents.
However, continued losses in the Asian and European stock market fed fears of potential slow down in economic growth that would undermine oil demand and this saw Brent crude below $61 a barrel.
After factoring in the excise duty cut on petrol and diesel from February 28 and recent reduction in prices of these two products the oil marketing companies were suffering under recovery of Rs1.24 per litre on petrol and Rs1.52 per litre on diesel.
