OREANDA-NEWS. May 4, 2012. A marginal fall in Brent crude oil prices is not helping India as the rupee depreciates. Indian crude oil basket price stood at USD 116.97 per barrel on 2nd May 2012 as against an average of USD 118.39 in the month of April. Although the crude prices have fallen in dollar terms, in rupee terms the cost of crude oil is actually 1.2% higher at Rs 6191.22 per barrel.

This means the country's under-recoveries that appear lower in the first half of May 2012 than the previous month, are likely to move up in the second half. The three oil marketing companies Indian Oil, BPCL and HPCL put together are losing Rs 518 crore every day on sale of diesel, PDS Kerosene and Domestic LPG compared to Rs 563 crore lost daily in April 2012.

According to the international petroleum price review by Petroleum Planning and Analysis Cell (PPAC), the under-recoveries on HSD (High Speed Diesel) applicable for 1st fortnight of May 2012 have remained high at Rs 13.91/litre effective 1st May 2012. In the second half of April 2012 this stood at Rs 14.29/litre.

In case of PDS Kerosene the under-recoveries increased to Rs 31.49/Litre for the current month against Rs 31.04/litre in the month of April 2012.

The under-recoveries on Domestic LPG at Rs 480.50/cylinder is lower than Rs 570.5 per cylinder in previous month.

Petrol being a decontrolled product, PPAC doesn't consider it for the calculation of under-recoveries. However, as the state owned oil marketing companies have not revised petrol prices since December 2011, they are losing heavily on the same now that the oil prices have gone up substantially.