Petrol price goes past ₹83 per litre in Delhi, highest in two years

Petrol prices in Delhi shot past the ₹83-mark and settled at ₹83.13 per litre in the national capital of Delhi. This is the highest it has been in two years and is fueled by a rally in international oil prices which have resulted in the 13th upward price revision in the last fortnight.

Petrol price saw a hike of 27 paise per litre on Saturday while diesel price was hiked by 25 paise per litre to settle at ₹73.32 in Delhi.

The current prices of petrol and diesel are the highest Delhi has seen since September of 2018. Oil Companies had resumed daily revision of fuel prices on November 20 after a hiatus of around two months.

In Delhi, petrol prices have gone up by ₹2.07 per litre while diesel rates have been upped by ₹2.86 in the last 16 days.

PTI adds:

ICICI Securities said vaccine hopes are driving oil prices up.

Brent crude oil is up 34 per cent from lows in end-October 2020 driven by hope that COVID-19 vaccines would lead to demand recovery.

"The oil price surge is despite a second wave of Covid in Europe and US (which has led to demand recovery reversal), and surge in Libyan oil output from 0.1 million barrels per day (bpd) to 1.25 million bpd," it said.

Oil cartel OPEC plus its allies like Russia, (called OPEC ), deciding to raise output from January 2021 more modestly than earlier agreed is likely to ensure global supply deficit even in the first quarter of 2021. "Thus, OPEC has done its part to prevent supply surplus until the vaccine boosts demand," it added.

Brent has risen from USD 36.9 per barrel on October 30 to USD 49.5 on December 4.

IEA estimates the global oil supply deficit at 2.1-2.8 million bpd in Q3-Q4 calendar year 2020. However, a surplus of 0.4 million was likely in Q1 2021 if OPEC , as agreed in April 2020, was to prune output cuts from 7.7 million bpd to 5.8 million bpd from January.

"However, we now estimate supply deficit of 0.5 million bpd in Q1 2021 and 0.2-2.8 million bpd in Q2-Q4 as OPEC has decided to raise output by just 0.5 million bpd in January 2021 and by not more than 0.5 million bpd in later months and only after deliberations," ICICI Securities said.

Prior to the November 20 hike in rates in India, petrol prices had been static since September 22 and diesel rates hadn't changed since October 2.

Public sector oil marketing companies - Indian Oil Corporation (IOC), Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd (BPCL) and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd (HPCL) - revise rates of petrol and diesel daily based on benchmark international oil price and foreign exchange rate.

They had, however, resorted to calibrating the rates since the pandemic broke out with a view to avoiding volatility in retail prices.

The 58-day hiatus in petrol price revision and 48-day status quo on diesel rates were preceded by no change in rates between June 30 and August 15 and an 85-day status quo between March 17 and June 6.

In Mumbai, the petrol price on Friday was raised to ₹89.78 per litre from ₹89.52, while diesel rates went up from ₹79.66 to ₹79.93.