Petrol, diesel price hike for 3rd time this week; how costly could fuel be?

Petrol and diesel prices were hiked by 80 paise per litre each on Friday, the third increase in four days.

Petrol in Delhi will now cost Rs 97.81 per litre as against Rs 97.01 previously while diesel rates have gone up from Rs 88.27 per litre to Rs 89.07, according to a price notification of state fuel retailers.

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With the last three price rises, petrol and diesel prices have gone up by Rs 2.40 a litre.

Moody's Investors Services says fuel retailers IOC, BPCL and HPCL together lost around $2.25 billion or Rs 19,000 crore in revenue for keeping petrol and diesel prices on hold during elections in five states.

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Oil companies will need to raise diesel prices by Rs 13-25 per litre and Rs 10-22 a litre on petrol at an underlying crude price of $100-120 per barrel, according to Kotak Institutional Equities.

CRISIL Research said a Rs 9-12 per litre increase in retail price will be required for a full pass-through of an average $100 per barrel crude oil and Rs 15-20 a litre hike if the average crude oil price rises to $110-120.

Well, with brent futures hovering around $120/bbl, India must be ready to see fuel prices at around Rs 120 in the upcoming days.

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