After the global crude oil prices crossed $75 per barrel on Thursday, state-run oil marketing companies (OMCs) have raised the retail prices of diesel while keeping the petrol prices stable across the major cities in India.
While in Delhi the diesel is selling at Rs 66.61, up 7 paise, petrol prices are stable at Rs 73.02 per litre. In Mumbai, the diesel price has also been hiked by 7 paise to Rs 69.72 per litre, whereas the petrol is being sold at Rs 78.59 per litre.
In Chennai, people need to shell out Rs 75.79 for petrol, while for diesel they need to spend Rs 70.34, higher by 8 paise.
In Kolkata city, people are buying diesel and petrol at Rs 68.35 and Rs 75.04 per litre, respectively. While there is no change in the petrol price, diesel price has been increased by 7 paise.
The crude oil prices have been on a rally this week. The crude oil prices soared over $75 per barrel for the first time in 2019 on Thursday. Yesterday, the fuel prices were increased after a gap of four days.
There has only been a slight fluctuation in the fuel prices and experts are citing ongoing general elections as the main reason for not hiking the rates as the government can not outrage people in this crucial time.
According to the market experts, the surge in crude oil prices doesn’t bode well for the profitability of OMCs. They said the global oil prices should not breach the level of $80 per barrel.
The oil prices are market driven. If OMCs are not raising petrol prices, it must be because of the older inventory or other factors like elections, they said. It is negative for the downstream oil companies as their margins will go down with the rise in oil prices, while upstream companies need to do better when the oil prices go up, they noted.