Staggered petrol hike expected in India as crude still above $125 per barrel

A staggered rise in domestic transportation fuel prices are expected soon as Brent Crude oil price remains above $125 per barrel.

At present, India imports 85 per cent of its crude oil needs.

It is estimated that the high crude oil prices will raise prices of domestic transportation fuels in the range from Rs 10 to Rs 32 per litre.

However, the state-owned OMCs did not revise petrol and diesel prices on Tuesday.

It was widely expected that the OMCs would revise the current prices on or after March 7, which was the last day of voting in the ongoing state Assembly elections.

Till now, fuel prices have been steady since early November when the Centre reduced excise duty on petrol and diesel by Rs 5 and Rs 10 per litre, respectively.

Recently, the Russia-Ukraine crisis as well as robust demand has led to a global hike in crude oil prices.

The Brent-indexed crude oil prices stood at over $125 per barrel on Tuesday from a 14-year high of $130 per barrel a day before.

On Friday, the Brent-indexed crude oil stood at $113.76 per barrel from a 10-year high of $119.84 per barrel a day before.

Lately, crude oil prices have surged by nearly 20 per cent on fear of tight supplies.

Currently, Russia is one of the largest producers of crude oil in the world.

It is feared that new and more stringent sanctions against Russia will curtail global supplies and stifle global growth.

The country imports 85 per cent of its crude oil needs, and estimates range from a Rs 10 to Rs 32 per litre rise in prices of transportation fuels.

"Trend of crude oil prices is bullish on the back of short supplies," said IIFL Securities VP, Research, Anuj Gupta.

"We expect the petrol price to be increased in a staggered manner in the coming days."

According to Tapan Patel, Senior Analyst (Commodities), HDFC Securities: "Crude oil prices extended gains on Tuesday with Brent oil prices rose by 3.38 per cent to $127.37 per barrel on tight supplies in the market. Crude oil prices surged after Russia warned of higher oil prices and threatened to cut energy supplies to Europe."

"The global oil prices are hovering at 14 years high which is making strong case for sharp rise in fuel prices in India as the country is importing around 85 per cent of oil to meet demand."

In addition, Kshitij Purohit, Lead of Commodities and Currencies CapitalVia Global Research said: "Now that the state election is over and the ruling party has gained an advantage over the opposition, it is expected that prices will rise once the election results are announced."

"The Indian government is using their reserves to control the prices and if international prices are not sustained at higher levels then we might see 10-12 rupees hike in petrol and diesel."

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