OPEC output cut: Petrol, diesel price freeze in India just gets longer
The Hindu
India imports 85% of its oil needs and international oil prices directly dictate domestic pricing
The record six-month-long freeze in petrol and diesel price revision in all likelihood will be extended after international oil prices rose on the announcement of deep production cuts by OPEC+.
Some of the world's top oil-producing countries on Wednesday agreed to slash production by two million barrels per day to spur recovery in oil prices that had dropped to pre-Ukraine war levels.
For India, this is bad news as a fall in oil prices in recent weeks had helped it cut down on its import bill as well as limit losses that state-owned fuel retailers were incurring on selling petrol and diesel.
Prior to the decision of OPEC+, losses on diesel had come down to about ₹5 per litre from a peak of around ₹30 a litre while oil companies had started making a small profit on petrol, industry sources said.
But the rise in prices of crude oil, which is refined to produce petrol, diesel and other products, and the weakening of the rupee against the U.S. dollar would mean losses on diesel widen and margins on petrol erode, they said.
India imports 85% of its oil needs and international oil prices directly dictate domestic pricing.
State-owned fuel retailers — Indian Oil Corporation (IOC), Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd (BPCL) and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd (HPCL) — have changed the retail selling price of petrol and diesel in line with the international costs for a record six months now to help the government manage runaway inflation.
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