NEW DELHI (Commodity Online): India’s crude oil import prices in rupee terms have risen to Rs 5828.74 per barrel this week before falling slightly to Rs 5826.77 per barrel due to surge in global prices on account of US economic recovery and geo-political tensions in Iran that could curtail supplies.
According to a note released by Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas on Friday, India’s import price in dollar terms rose to US $118.31 per barrel and with rupee trading ranging bound at $49 levels, import prices continue to rule high in rupee terms, officials said.
Due to high global crude oil prices, India’s curde oil import, India's crude oil import bill for the first-nine months of the current fiscal 2011-12 has shot up by 49% to Rs 469,993 crore, even as the quantum of crude oil imports during the same period went up by just 3%.
According to the official figures, the import of crude oil during April-December 2011 was 125.6 million tonnes (mt) valued at Rs 469,993 crore as against imports of 121.5 mt, valued at Rs 3,16,443 crore, during the same period last year.
India depends on North Sea Brent crude oil to meet its energy requirements as logistically it is more convenient to source the commodity.
During the April-December period, India's production of petroleum products from crude oil and natural gas was 152.116 mt, 4.9% higher than that produced during the same period in 2010-11. The consumption of petroleum products during the same period was 109.497 mt, which is 4.5% higher than that consumed during the same period in 2010-11.
