Domestic crude oil unchanged at $50.41

Domestic crude oil basket remained unchanged at the previous day's level of Rs 2,230 ($50.41) a barrel on Friday, the petroleum and natural gas ministry said.

The Indian basket slipped below $50 per barrel on Wednesday at $49.85, the lowest in the current financial year.

The domestic crude basket consists of the Oman-Dubai sour grade crude and the Brent dated sweet crude in 58:42 ratio.

On Friday, the Brent crude closed at $52.42 a barrel, up $1.58 from Thursday. 
 

SLOW 'N STEADY
Period	price/barrel
Jan 19	50.41
Dec average	60.35
Nov average	57.80
Oct average	57.27
Sep average	61.04
Aug average	70.84
Apr-Jun average	67.13
Jul-Sep average	67.71
Oct-Dec average	58.45
FY07 average (so far)	63.60
FY06 average	55.72

The Dubai benchmark was down by $1.09 at $48.88 a barrel and the Oman grade fell by $1.04 to $49.23 a barrel. Crude oil for the February delivery on the New York Mercantile Exchange on Friday closed at $51.99 per barrel, up $1.51, due to a rising winter demand in northeast US "� the country's highest consuming region.

The average price of the Indian basket so far in January is $52.18 a barrel against $60.35 in December.