However, oil companies have stopped short of reducing the retail price of petrol and diesel during the week as more time will be required to study oil price movement before any downward revision. Already, crude has firmed up a bit for last few days and this could prevent price cut by OMCs.

 

With no change in prices on Thursday, in the national capital, petrol continues to be sold for Rs 101.84 per litre, while diesel is also being sold at the unchanged price of Rs 89.87 a litre.

 

The pump price of fuel has been static since July 18.

 

One of the main reasons for pause in fuel price rise is an over 10 per cent fall seen in global oil prices with benchmark crude sliding to $69 a barrel from a high of over $77 barrel just couple of weeks back. It had again risen close to over $75 a barrel on strong demand projections.

 

With OPEC reaching an agreement to raise crude production, oil prices are expected to remain soft. This could make way for fuel prices in India to actually fall after a long interval.

 

In the city of Mumbai, where petrol prices crossed Rs 100 mark for the first time on May 29, the fuel price is at Rs 107.83 per litre. Diesel in the city is also at Rs 97.45, the highest among metros.

 

Petrol prices in all metros have now crossed Rs 100 per litre mark.

 

The week long price pause comes after fuel prices increased on 41 days and remained unchanged on 48 days since May 1. The 41 increases have taken up petrol prices by Rs 11.44 per litre in Delhi. Similarly, diesel price has increased by Rs 9.14 per litre in the national capital.

 

Since April 2020, petrol prices have increased by Rs 32.25 per litre from Rs 69.59 a litre to Rs 101.84 a litre now in Delhi. Similarly, diesel prices during the period has increased by Rs 27.58 per litre from Rs 62.29 to Rs 89.87 a litre in the national capital.