Business
Indian crude oil basket at sub-$43 falls to lowest in 2015
New Delhi, Aug 25
Continuing its free fall,
the Indian basket of crude oils fell over $2.50 over the weekend to
$42.97 a barrel on the previous trading day before, as per official data
released on Tuesday, even as global crude oil prices plumetted to fresh
six-year lows.
The Indian basket -- comprising 73 percent
sour-grade Dubai and Oman crudes, and the balance in sweet-grade Brent
-- fell to its lowest since December 2008 when the prices averaged
$40.61 for the month, as per data with the government-run Petroleum
Planning and Analysis Cell.
Data, that comes with a lag of one
day, showed the Indian basket plunged on Monday below its earlier
lowest this year at $43.36 in January, which had resulted in the Reserve
Bank of India (RBI) making the first of its interest rate cuts after a
gap of nearly two years.
This is the second time this year that
oil is dropping below the psychological $50-a-barrel mark from levels of
over $100 last year.
Two key benchmarks, Britain's Brent and the
US Western Texas Intermediate, were trading lower at $43.13 per barrel
and $38.67 pe barrel, respectively, at mid-session trade on Tuesday.
The
basket of 12 crude oils of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting
Countries (OPEC) closed at $40.67 a barrel on Monday, compared to $43
last Friday.
Particularly since global powers signed the historic
nuclear deal with Iran last month, traders have been worried that crude
supply might exceed the demand.
In July, the OPEC crude
production increased by 101,000 barrels per day to average 31.51
million barrels per day, according to OPEC's monthly oil market report
last week.
Oil prices have been under pressure for several months
due to concerns over oversupply, but the slump has deepened in recent
weeks fuelled by fears of a sharp slowdown in the Chinese economy.
The
fall in oil followed an 8.5 percent decline in the Shanghai Composite
Index on Monday. China is the world's second-largest consumer of oil
after the US.
Chinese shares lost another 4 percent in trade on Tuesday.
In
a move to deal with current economic weaknesses, the Chinese central
bank lowered its daily reference rate by 1.9 percent earlier this
month, rocking currency markets globally and affecting also the rupee.