Understand the whole game here, India buys crude oil worth Rs 3,14,618 every second.

During April-December of the current financial year, India's oil and gas import bill has seen a decline of 21 percent year-on-year and due to fall in crude oil prices, the total bill during this period is 89.9 billion dollars i.e. 7.47 lakh crores. It has become Rs. If we calculate this bill on the basis of one second then it comes to Rs 3,14,618.

Do you know how much India pays for gas apart from petrol and diesel? Yes, crude oil and natural gas account for the most money in the import bill of the Government of India. If you want to understand this in simple language, then just understand that the government pays a bill of Rs 3,14,618 for crude oil and natural gas every second. This data is not ours but that of the Petroleum Planning and Analysis Cell. Which is a department of the Petroleum Ministry. In fact, this agency of the government has given information about the value and bill of import of crude oil and natural gas of the country. This information is from April 2023 to December 2023 i.e. 3 quarters of the current financial year. Let us give you detailed information about this.

21 percent decline in import bill

During April-December of the current financial year, India's oil and gas import bill has seen a decline of 21 percent year-on-year and due to fall in crude oil prices, the total bill during this period is 89.9 billion dollars i.e. 7.47 lakh crores. It has become Rs. If we calculate this bill on the basis of one second then it comes to Rs 3,14,618. According to the latest data from Petroleum Planning and Analysis Cell (PPAC), India's crude oil imports increased slightly to 172.9 million tonnes till December, which is slightly more than 172.3 million tonnes purchased in the same period of financial year 2022-23.

How cheap did crude oil become?

In fiscal year 2023, crude oil prices reached a record $ 130 per barrel after the Russia-Ukraine war. The main reason for which was less supply due to war. However, Brent crude of Gulf countries and American crude oil West Texas Intermediate declined by more than 10 percent in 2023 and closed at their lowest level at the end of the year since 2020. So far in January, the Indian crude oil basket has averaged $77.85 per barrel, while in April 2023 it was $83.76 per barrel. This means that since then the Indian basket has become cheaper by more than 7 percent.

Dependency on crude increased to more than 87 percent

Interestingly, by the end of December, India's dependence on imported crude oil increased to 87.5 percent, which is marginally higher than 87 percent in the same period last year. India's import volume of crude oil in December was 19.6 million tonnes, which is slightly less than the imported volume of 19.8 million tonnes in the same month last year. After this there was a decrease of 2 percent in November.

Import bill of LNG also reduced

In December, imports of Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) also increased by 12.1 percent year-on-year, reaching 2,393 million metric standard cubic meters (MMSCM). A total of 22,856 MMSCM were imported during the April-December period, which is 14.2 percent more than last year. Despite higher LNG imports in December, the value remained stable at $1.1 billion. The total import value in April-December fell to $9.9 billion from $13.7 billion in the same period of FY 2023.

Consumption of petroleum products increased

The PPAC report also indicated that India's petroleum product consumption increased by 4.9 per cent during April-December 2023 to 172.7 million metric tonnes (MMT) compared to 164.60 MMT in the same period last year. Is. PPAC estimates that India's demand for refined petroleum products will increase by 5.17 percent to a record high of 233.80 million tonnes in fiscal year 2024, which is more than 222.30 million tonnes in the last financial year.