Fuel prices witness sharp hike, check January 14 rates in your city

After a steep rise in the prices of petrol and diesel on Sunday, Monday again saw a sharp increase in fuel prices. With a rise of as much as 38 paise in the price of petrol and 49 paise in that of diesel, the rollback in prices towards the end of December 2018 seems to be soon getting negated and as OPEC-led nations have decided to lessen oil production again, petrol, diesel prices in the country might go up again. Petrol retailed at Rs 70.13 a litre and diesel at Rs 64.18 in Delhi after today’s price revision as notified by Indian Oil.  In Mumbai, petrol hovered over the Rs 75-mark and settled at Rs 75.39 a litre, while diesel retailed at Rs 66.18 per litre. In Kolkata, a litre of petrol was priced at Rs 72.24 a litre whereas diesel price went up to Rs 65.95 a litre. In Chennai, prices of petrol and diesel were Rs 72.79 and Rs 67.78 a litre, respectively.

The NCR cities of Noida, Gurugram and Faridabad also witnessed hikes in the prices of fuel. In Noida, prices of petrol and diesel were Rs 70.07 and Rs 63.59 a litre, respectively. Petrol was retailing at Rs 71.10 in Gurugram and Rs 71.31 a litre in Faridabad, respectively. While diesel was priced at Rs 64.20 in Gurugram Rs 64.41 in Faridabad, respectively.

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Major PSUs have been increasing fuel prices despite a dip in global oil prices by as much as 2 percent on Friday. Fuel prices are being increased considering solid weekly gains posted by global crude prices. All major crude oil benchmarks fell on Friday while Brent Crude oil was trading at $60.48 per barrel, a 1.95% loss. Despite Friday's price fall, Brent crude is set for weekly gains of more than 7 per cent. US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures were down $1 to settle at $51.59 a barrel, or 1.9 per cent. 

It may be noted that the recent fall in the value of rupee against the US dollar has offset gains from the falling crude oil prices. The rupee has fallen over 3 per cent in the last few days. The crude prices have fallen by over 30 per cent since early October last year when it was at USD 86 per barrel, making a forecast of $100 crude by January look true. The twin factors, therefore, have brought down retail fuel rates to two-month low. Retail fuel prices in India depend on both international oil price and the rupee-dollar exchange rate. Also, the pump price of petrol and diesel is dependent on the global rates of benchmark fuel and the rupee-US dollar exchange rate.