Losses on petrol, LPG end; continue to incur loss on diesel sales: BPCL chairman

‘Global prices volatile, unable to pass on volatility’

A moderation in international oil prices has helped Indian fuel retailers to break even on petrol and domestic cooking gas LPG but they continue to lose money on diesel, the most used fuel in the country, an official said on Monday.

State-owned fuel retailers Indian Oil Corporation (IOC), Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd (BPCL) and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd (HPCL) have not raised petrol and diesel prices for almost five months now despite rising international oil prices.

This is because international oil prices were highly volatile, rising or falling by $5-7 per barrel on a single day, BPCL chairman and managing director Arun Kumar Singh told reporters.

"Our ability to pass on this kind of volatility is simply not there. No marketer can transfer this kind of volatility," he said, adding, "It is our deep desire to absorb volatility. We don't pass on sharp increase or fall in prices."

And so the oil companies decided to absorb "some losses with hope that we can make up for these losses later," he said.

At one point, the fuel retailers were losing ₹20-25 per litre on diesel and ₹14-18 a litre on petrol as international oil prices soared. These losses have been trimmed with the fall in oil prices.

"Next month onwards there will be no losses on LPG. We don't have any losses on gasoline (petrol) today," he said, adding that there, however, are some losses on diesel.