Indian crude oil price touches $62/barrel

Tension in Iran pushed up the Indian crude oil basket to $62 a barrel on Tuesday, its highest in this calendar year. The basket was up $1.03 a barrel on Monday over its Friday's price.

The Indian basket comprises Oman-Dubai sour grade crude and Brent dated sweet crude in 58:42 ratio. In the current month till Friday, the Indian basket has averaged $59.63 a barrel. In February, it averaged $56.53 a barrel compared with $52.53 in January.

In over a month the price of the basket of crude oil that Indian refiners buy has increased 11.23 per cent from $55.74 a barrel on February 21 to $62 a barrel on Tuesday. Prices had hit a low of $49 a barrel on January 17 this year.

Overnight international Brent crude oil prices soared to $69 a barrel in London late Tuesday following an unsubstantiated rumour that Iran had attacked an American ship. Prices had hit $69 a barrel last on September 4, 2006.

In day trading in Europe on Wednesday the price of Brent North Sea crude for May delivery leapt $1.02 to $65.62 a barrel in electronic trading.