Petrol, diesel prices hiked after four months
Premium- The price hike in auto fuel is expected to continue in the coming days as crude prices have increased significantly of late
New Delhi: Petrol and diesel prices increased in the metro cities by 80 paise per litre after remaining steady for nearly 137 days. Oil marketing companies (OMC) had last revised prices in November.
Petrol in Delhi now costs ₹96.21 per litre as against ₹95.41 previously, while diesel rates have jumped from ₹86.67 per litre to ₹87.47.
Petrol price in Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata stood at ₹110.82, ₹102.16 and ₹105.51 per litre, respectively.
Diesel was priced at ₹95, ₹92.19 and ₹90.62 per litre in Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata, respectively.
Experts expect the price hike to continue in the coming days as crude prices have increased significantly of late.
Around 9.30 am, the May contract of Brent on the Intercontinental Exchange was trading at $118.55, higher by 2.53% from its previous close. The April contract of West Texas Intermediate rose 1.94% to $114.30 a barrel.
Along with the persistent concerns over supply amid the Russia-Ukraine crisis, multiple attacks on oil facilities in Saudi Arabia by Houthi rebels of Yemen also spiked prices on Tuesday.
Rahul Kalantri, vice president for commodities at Mehta Equities noted that crude oil prices have gained around 18% in last four days. He noted that anticipation of the European Union banning Russian oil imports.
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In its oil market report for March 2022 released last week, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the eventual Western sanctions on its oil exports could mean 3 million barrels a day of Russian supply effectively cut off from global markets starting next month.
Crude oil prices which touched multi-year highs during the first week of March, declined for few sessions of the last fortnight, before rising again on March 17.
Brent had touched $139.13 per barrel, the highest since 2008, on March 7.
Last week, oil marketing companies raised jet fuel prices by a steep 18%. In a first, aviation turbine fuel (ATF) prices are now above the ₹1 lakh per kilolitre mark.
Further, price of diesel purchased by bulk industrial buyers directly from the oil marketing companies have increased by ₹25 per litre. The high oil prices have been a cause of concern for India as the country imports 85% of its oil demand.
Amid concerns of supply shortage, the Union Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas Hardeep Singh Puri in reply to a supplementary question in parliament, allayed fears of short supply of crude oil amid the Russia-Ukraine conflict. He also said that crude imports from Russia are miniscule at just 0.2% of total oil imports till January this fiscal.
"About the increased oil import concerns... we require total of five million barrels per day. Sixty per cent of it comes from Gulf. We have imported from Russia, just 0.419 million metric tonnes, that is 0.2 per cent of total requirement (during April-January this fiscal)," Puri said in the Rajya Sabha on Monday while replying to a supplementary to a starred question. He added that the government is monitoring the situation.
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