Domestic oil basket falls to $56.08 a barrel

The price of India's crude oil basket Wednesday eased by another 94 cents a barrel to $56.08 per barrel, the petroleum and natural gas ministry said today.

The price of India's crude basket currently is over 25 per cent lower than the all-time high of $75.30 a barrel touched on August 8.

Following the sharp dip in crude prices in September, the month's average was $61.04 per barrel compared with the August average of $70.84. In October till Wednesday, the basket had averaged at $57.45 per barrel.

The recent softening of crude prices has provided some relief to India's oil marketing companies that had been reeling under heavy revenue losses.

The state-owned oil marketing companies have not revised retail product prices since June.

The Indian crude basket comprises Oman-Dubai sour grade crude and Brent dated sweet crude in 58:42 ratio. Wednesday, Brent crude closed at $56.42 a barrel, while Dubai and Oman benchmarks were at $565.30 and $56.40 a barrel, respectively, the data said.