NEW DELHI: India’s crude oil import bill for the current fiscal is likely to be $62 billion, nearly half of the previous year’s, as prices continue to tumble due to supply glut.
The expenditure on crude oil import is estimated to slide 45% from $113 billion in 2014-15, assuming the Indian basket crude oil price of $35 a barrel and an exchange rate of Rs 67 to a dollar for February and March, the Petroleum Planning & Analysis Cell (PPAC) of the oil ministry said in its monthly commentary.
In January, the Indian basket crude averaged $28.08/barrel. If crude prices were to increase by one dollar per barrel, net import would swell by $0.16 billion, and if the exchange rate of dollar were to rise by one rupee, it would result in an increase of Rs 541 crore, the PPAC said.
In volume terms, the import of crude oil is estimated to decline marginally to 188.23 million metric tonne (MMT) in the current fiscal year from 189.43 MMT in 2014-15, even though import increased by 4.5% in the April-January period.