Our Bureau

New Delhi, Oct 13

Taking a queue from the volatility in the global crude oil prices, the domestic crude oil basket hit an all-time low for the current fiscal on Friday dipping to $72.87 a barrel.

After hitting a high of $142.04 a barrel in July, the domestic crude basket has fallen nearly 49 per cent since.

On Friday, the basket was down by $5.56 a barrel from the previous day. However, this was still higher than the lowest it hit during last fiscal at $62.91 a barrel.

The basket has averaged $114.54 a barrel for the current fiscal till Friday. The October (till Friday) average stood at $80.77 a barrel, over 16 per cent lower from September’s average of $96.81.

The drop in crude prices would bring down the revenue loss suffered by the public sector oil marketing companies for selling petrol, diesel, cooking gas and kerosene at a controlled price.

Currently, the three OMCs were incurring a revenue loss of Rs 5.57 a litre on petrol, Rs 12.95 a litre on diesel, Rs 335.03 a cylinder on LPG, and Rs 29.19 a litre on kerosene. The OMCs review the petrol and diesel prices on a fortnightly basis, while the prices of LPG and kerosene are reviewed on a monthly basis.

The Indian crude basket comprises Oman-Dubai sour grade crude and Brent dated sweet crude in a 62.3:37.7 ratio. On Friday while Dubai crude prices declined to $71.65, Oman crude prices fell to $72.10 a barrel. Dated Brent crude prices dipped to $74.51 a barrel on Friday.

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