Petrol, Diesel prices touch record highs after 2-day pause

Delhi: The petrol and diesel prices touched fresh record highs across the four metros on Tuesday, February 23, after a temporary pause of two days, NDTV reported. In Delhi, the price of petrol was hiked by 35 paise from Rs 90.58 per litre to ₹ 90.93 per litre and diesel was increased by an equal amount from Rs 80.97 per litre to ₹ 81.32 per litre, according to Indian Oil Corporation, the country's largest fuel retailer. Meanwhile, in Mumbai, the revised petrol and diesel rates stood at ₹ 97.34 per litre and ₹ 88.44 per litre respectively. Currently, among the four metro cities, the fuel rates are the highest in Mumbai.

Petrol and diesel prices have recorded an upswing since January 6, 2021, after staying unchanged for almost a month. The fuel prices have increased amid a rally in global crude oil prices, with coronavirus vaccination drives across the world.

Oil marketing companies - Bharat Petroleum, Indian Oil Corporation, as well as Hindustan Petroleum align the rates of domestic fuel with the global benchmarks, by taking into account any changes in the foreign exchange rates. Any changes in fuel prices are implemented with effect from 6 am every day.

Meanwhile, oil prices rose again on Tuesday after a jump in the previous session, holding near a more than 13-month high as U.S. output was slow to return after a deep freeze in Texas shut in crude production last week.

Brent crude futures were up 28 cents, or 0.4 per cent, at $65.52 a barrel by 0102 GMT, while U.S. crude oil rose 14 cents, or 0.2 per cent, to $61.84 a barrel. Both benchmarks rose nearly 4 per cent in the previous session.