NEW DELHI: Oil marketing companies (OMC) continued to pause fuel price revision for seven consecutive days, the longest period in weeks, as the global development on oil production and rising US inventories softened crude and product rates.
However, they stopped short of reducing the retail price of petrol and diesel as more time will be required to study oil price movement before any downward revision.
Already, crude has firmed a bit for last few days and this could prevent price cut by the OMCs.
With no change in prices on Saturday, in the national capital petrol continues to be sold for Rs 101.84 per litre, while diesel remains at the unchanged price of Rs 89.87 a litre.
The pump price of fuel has been static since Sunday. It last increased on July 17 with petrol being revised upwards by 30 paisa 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 barrel just a few weeks ago.
It had again risen to over $74 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 Mumbai, where petrol prices crossed 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. (IANS)
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