Petrol, diesel prices left unchanged for almost a month today
- Petrol and diesel prices are down 8-10% from this January highs
- Crude oil rates have slumped more than 50% so far in the year
Amid a slump in oil demand during lockdown, state-run fuel retailers today left the price of petrol and diesel unchanged for the 29th day in a row. Crude oil prices are down by more than 54% this year while auto fuel rates have fallen by only about 8-10% from their peaks in this year.
Despite an unprecedented deal by the world's biggest producers to cut output to steady a market pummelled by coronavirus, oil futures are still trading around 32% a barrel.
In India, fuel sales have slumped by around 70% this month as industries, barring those falling under the essential services category, are shut. Slump in fuel demand has already forced some refiners to halve crude processing and raise prompt exports of refined fuels.
India is capitalizing on low global oil prices to fill its underground strategic oil reserves, with the first shipload of 1 million barrels of crude oil from the UAE arriving at Mangalore as part of efforts to shore up supplies to meet any supply or price disruption.
While the 5.33 million tonne of emergency storage -- enough to meet its oil needs for 9.5 days -- was built in underground rock caverns in Mangalore and Padur in Karnataka and Visakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh by the government, state-owned oil firms have been asked to buy oil at cheaper rates from the market and fill them up.
The storages at Mangalore and Padur are half-empty and there was some space available in Vizag storage as well. These will now be filled by buying oil from Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Iraq.
In Delhi, a litre of petrol is priced at ₹69.59 per litre and diesel at ₹62.29 per litre today. In Mumbai, petrol is selling at ₹76.31 per litre and diesel at ₹66.21 per litre. In Chennai, a litre of petrol will cost ₹72.28 per litre whereas diesel is now priced at ₹65.71 per litre.
In Bengaluru, petrol is now selling at ₹73.55 and diesel at ₹65.96. In Hyderabad, petrol pumps are charging ₹73.97 for petrol and ₹67.82 for diesel. If you are in Gurgaon, you will have to shell out ₹70.21 for petrol and ₹62.08 for diesel. In Kolkata, petrol pumps are charging ₹73.30 for petrol and ₹65.62 for diesel.
(Inputs from agencies)
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First Published:14 Apr 2020, 08:49 AM IST
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