India's petrol and diesel prices remained steady on March 12 despite surge in global oil prices after two oil tankers were attacked in Iraqi waters. The ongoing US–Israel–Iran war in the Middle East has triggered a spike in crude oil prices.
Amid the ongoing shortage of commercial Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) in several parts of India due to the Middle East conflict, petrol and diesel prices in India remained largely unchanged on Thursday. While Hyderabad, Kolkata and Patna continue to witness some of the highest petrol prices, Delhi, Ahmedabad and Lucknow remain relatively cheaper markets, mainly due to differences in state-level taxes, according to the latest price notification issued by state-run oil marketing companies.
The LPG price hike affected several sectors, mainly the food and beverage (F&B) industry. On March 12, the value of rupee fell against the dollar as it depreciated 31 paise to 92.32 against the US dollar in early trade, pressured by Foreign Institutional Investors (FII) and rising global crude oil prices.
"Escalations of attacks around the Strait of Hormuz and attacks on neighbouring countries pushed oil prices higher and the risk-off sentiment was supporting the dollar as a safe haven asset with prices of gold, along with silver, also falling," PTI uoted Head of Treasury and Executive Director of Finrex Treasury Advisors LLP, Anil Kumar Bhansali as saying.
He added, ""The Reserve Bank was protecting 92.00 levels yesterday (Wednesday) and may protect 92.30 levels today but the trend of the rupee still seems weak," he added.
Let's have a look at petrol and diesel prices in major cities of India.
Rising trend of global oil prices
Potential brent crude global supply shortage and heightened geopolitical risk lead to an uptick in its prices — the global oil benchmark — as much as 9.94% to $101.12 per barrel in futures trade, while West Texas Intermediate (WTI) surged close to $94.
Supply concerns were elevated and reflected in prices after Iraq's state oil marketer, the State Organization for Marketing of Oil (SOMO), confirmed that two vessels were attcked while in the loading zone near Iraqi ports. The Marshall Islands-flagged Safesea Vishnu and the Malta-flagged Zefyros were the two vessels targeted. Iraqi authorities halted activity at the country's oil terminals following the attack.
