Fuel Price

Petrol and diesel prices remained unchanged across the four metro cities on Sunday. The pause comes after petrol prices were raised by 35 paise on Saturday. In the national capital, petrol is selling at Rs 100.91 per litre, unchanged from its previous levels. Further, diesel prices also remained unchanged in tandem with petrol prices. Fuel prices have so far been increased on 38 days and remained unchanged on 34 days since May 1

The retail prices of petrol and diesel rose by a sharp 35 paise and 26 paise per litre on Saturday to touch a new high of Rs 100.91 and Rs 89.88 per litre respectively in Delhi. With the rise, now diesel prices have reached very close to hitting the century mark all across the country. The fuel is already over Rs 100 per litre in some towns in Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh.

After crossing $77 a barrel, global crude prices have softened a bit with differences surfacing in oil cartel OPEC over continuation of production cuts. With price pause on Friday, petrol continues to be priced at Rs 100.56 a litre and diesel 89.62 a litre in the national capital. Across the country as well the fuel prices remained unchanged on Friday. Fuel prices were revised upwards on previous two days.

Accordingly, the price of petrol increased by 35 paise from Rs 100.21 on Wednesday to Rs 100.56 a litre on Thursday in Delhi. Diesel prices also increased in the city but a tad lower by just 9 paise per litre to touch Rs 89.62 a litre. Across the country as well retail prices of both petrol and diesel increased for the second consecutive day but the actual rates varied depending on the level of local taxes in states.

At a meeting of OPEC plus (including Russia), differences surfaced between the world's largest oil producer Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates (UAE) over raising oil production marginally in August while maintaining production level at the same till 2022. This prevented a deal that would have helped to soften crude prices a bit next month on the back of increased oil production of 2 million barrels a day.

Accordingly, petrol continued to be priced at Rs 99.86 a litre and diesel Rs 89.36 a litre in the national capital on Tuesday. Across the country as well the fuel prices remained unchanged on Tuesday. The prices were last revised upwards on Monday when OMCs raised the petrol rates by up to 35 paise per litre while keeping diesel rates unchanged.

petrol prices are expected to cross the century mark in these two cities at next revision. With this the fuel will be over Rs 100 a litre in all four metros and other major cities across the country. In the financial capital Mumbai, petrol price now stands at Rs 105.92 while diesel costs Rs 96.91, data available on Indian Oil Corporation's website showed.

In the other key cities too petrol prices continued to climb to new highs. In Mumbai, it was priced at Rs 105.58 per litre, while in Chennai also it has surpassed the Rs 100-mark and is currently at Rs 100.44 a litre. Price of petrol in Kolkata is also inching closer to the three-figure mark and on Sunday it was sold for Rs 99.45 a litre.

The government is also working on an incentive scheme to promote manufacture and use of flex engines in vehicles. The details would be specified when policy in this regard is unveiled. The use of flexible fuel vehicles (FFVs) is being actively looked at by the government to ensure increased use of bio-fuels for running vehicles, Petroleum Secretary Tarun Kapoor had told IANS earlier.

But this time around, the oil companies have only increased the pump price of petrol while keeping diesel rates unchanged to limit the cascading effect of high transport fuel on prices of various other commodities. Accordingly, the retail price of petrol increased by 35 paise per litre in the national capital on Friday to Rs 99.16 while diesel prices maintained the previous days price line of Rs 89.18 a litre.