Pause on fuel hike enters Day 6
Oil marketing companies (OMC) continued with the pause on fuel price revision for the sixth consecutive day on Friday, the longest brake applied in weeks, as global development on oil production and rising US inventories softened crude and product prices.
The OMCs though have not reduced the retail price of petrol or diesel as more time would be required to study oil price movement before any downward revision.
With no change in prices, petrol continues to be sold for Rs 101.84 per litre in the national capital, while diesel is also being sold at the unchanged rate of Rs 89.87 a litre.
The pump price of fuel has been static since Sunday. It rose on Saturday with petrol being revised upwards by 30 paise per litre while diesel prices remained unchanged.
One of the main reasons for 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 a barrel just couple of weeks back. It had again risen to over $73 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 the city of 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.