The price of Indian basket of crude oil touched a record high of $100.17 a barrel during the Monday trade in the oil market. This has resulted in putting further pressure on fuel retailers, which are loosing Rs 360 crore per day on auto and cooking fuel sale.
In the international markets, crude oil prices today rose to an all-time high of over $108 a barrel due to a weakening dollar, which fell the most against major currencies yesterday.
The Indian basket of crude oil has averaged $98.46 per barrel in March as against February average of $92.37 a barrel. The current year average at $77.98 is a significant jump over $62.46 per barrel average in 2006-07.
Officials said the trend in crude oil prices has strengthened the case for the oil companies for a higher quantum of oil bonds from the finance ministry. An announcement on the SLR status for these bonds is also on the anvil, they said.
The surge in international oil prices has negated the gains oil companies made from the last month?s hike of Rs 2 a litre in petrol price and Re one a litre in diesel price.
Indian Oil Corp, which controls roughly half of the fuel market, said it was losing Rs 180 crore per day on sale of petrol, diesel, domestic LPG and kerosene through PDS. Public sector oil firms were losing Rs 9.68 a litre on petrol, Rs 12.21 per litre on diesel, Rs 20.95 per litre on kerosene and Rs 303.66 per 14.5-kg domestic LPG cylinder. Undithered by such high prices, the Minister of State for Petroleum and Natural Gas Dinsha Patel told the Parliament on Tuesday that ?The government is closely monitoring the international oil prices and will continue to protect the interests of consumers.?