Fuel prices break into new highs

New Delhi: Petrol and diesel price continued to rally northward on Thursday, the 10th consecutive day when its retail prices rose across the country. In Sri Ganganagar town in Rajasthan, normal petrol price has shot up over Rs 100 per litre to stand at Rs 100.49 a litre. The global oil market remained firm and prices of both crude and products saw a big spike.

Accordingly, oil marketing companies raised the pump price of petrol by 34 paise and diesel by another 32 paise per litre in Delhi. With this increase, petrol is now priced at Rs 89.88 a litre and diesel Rs 80.27 a litre in the national capital.

In the last 10 days (since February 9), the price has gone up by Rs 2.93 per litre for petrol while diesel rate has risen by Rs 3.14 a litre.

Across the country as well, the petrol and diesel price increase ranged between 30-35 paise per litre depending on the level of local taxes on the two petroleum products.

In Mumbai, petrol prices is just Rs 4 per litre short (Rs 96.32 a litre) of touching the three-digit mark of Rs 100 per litre for the very first time ever. Diesel prices in the city is closing on Rs 90 a litre (Rs 87.32 a litre).

In all other metros, petrol is over Rs 90 a litre mark while diesel is well over Rs 80 a litre. Premium petrol has crossed Rs 100 per litre mark in several cities of Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra.

The increase on Thursday has followed the firming global oil prices (both product and crude) that have maintained record streak of gains in past few days with crude prices crossing $65 a barrel mark.

Since fuel prices are benchmarked to a 15-day rolling average of global refined products' prices and dollar exchange rate, pump prices can be expected to remain northbound over the next few days even if crude hovers at the current level. The petrol and diesel prices have increased 22 times in 2021 with the two auto fuels increasing by Rs 6.17 and Rs 6.40 per litre respectively so far this year.