No effect of international crude falling on Indian petrol, diesel prices

New Delhi: Fuel prices in the country on Saturday remain steady for the seventh consecutive day as state-run oil companies hold rates amid falling international oil prices and rising US inventories softened crude and product rates.

Fuel prices are likely to reduce if the trend continues.

However, they stopped short of reducing the retail price of petrol and diesel as more time will be required to study oil price movement before any downward revision.

Already, crude has firmed a bit for the last few days and this could prevent price cuts by the OMCs.

At the moment, both petrol and diesel rates across the country remain at record levels.

With no change in prices on Saturday, in the national capital petrol continues to be sold for Rs 101.84 per litre, while diesel remains at the unchanged price of Rs 89.87 a litre.

The pump price of fuel has been static since Sunday. It last increased on July 17 with petrol being revised upwards by 30 paisa per litre, while diesel prices remained unchanged.

One of the main reasons for a pause in fuel price rise is an over 10 per cent fall seen in global oil prices with benchmark crude sliding to $69 a barrel from a high of over $77 barrel just a few weeks ago.

It had again risen to over $74 a barrel on strong demand projections.

With OPEC reaching an agreement to raise crude production, oil prices are expected to remain soft. This could make way for fuel prices in India to actually fall after a long interval.

In Mumbai, where petrol prices crossed the Rs 100 mark for the first time ever on May 29, the fuel price is at Rs 107.83 per litre. Diesel prices in the city is also at Rs 97.45, the highest among metros.

Petrol prices in all metros have now crossed the Rs 100 per litre mark.

The week-long price pause comes after fuel prices increased on 41 days and remained unchanged on 44 days since May 1.

The spikes took up petrol prices by Rs 11.44 per litre in Delhi, while diesel increased by Rs 9.14 per litre.

Since April 2020, petrol prices have increased by Rs 32.25 per litre from Rs 69.59 a litre to Rs 101.84 a litre now in Delhi.

Similarly, diesel prices during the period have increased by Rs 27.58 per litre from Rs 62.29 to Rs 89.87 a litre in the national capital.