Petrol, diesel prices hiked for the 4th day in a row

New Delhi: Petrol and diesel prices across the country soared to all-time high levels on Friday as rates were hiked again in line with the spurt in international oil prices.

Petrol price was increased by 30 paise per litre and diesel by 35 paise a litre, according to a price notification of state-owned fuel retailers.

The price of petrol in Delhi rose to its highest-ever level of ₹103.54 a litre and to ₹109.54 per litre in Mumbai, the notification showed.

Diesel rates too touched a record high of ₹92.12 in Delhi and inched closer to the ₹100-a-litre mark in Mumbai. It currently costs ₹99.92 a litre in Mumbai.

In Kolkata, one-litre petrol is available ₹104.23 and one-litre diesel is 95.23 and in Chennai, one-litre petrol is available at ₹101.01 and ₹96.60 for one litre of diesel.

Prices differ from state to state depending on the incidence of local taxes.

The increase on Friday pushed rates to a new record high. Petrol crossed the ₹100-a-litre mark in Lucknow and Gandhinagar - the last of the handful of state capitals that had rates less than that.

Petrol prices, which is dictated by the incidence of local taxes and freight, had already crossed the ₹100 mark in several places in Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat.

State-owned fuel retailers have in the past few days resorted to modest increases to align domestic rates with cost. But with international benchmark Brent crude soaring to $81 per barrel after the decision by OPEC not to increase output more than 0.4 million barrels per day, fuel rates are being increased by a larger proportion.

A month back Brent was around USD 72 per barrel.

Being a net importer of oil, India prices petrol and diesel at rates equivalent to international prices.

With international crude oil prices moving in both directions during July and August, no price increase was carried out by oil marketing companies (OMCs) from July 18 to September 23. Instead, petrol price was cut by ₹0.65 a litre and diesel by ₹1.25.

However, with no respite from surging international prices, OMCs have started to increase the retail selling price of petrol and diesel with effect from September 28 and September 24, respectively.

Oil futures rebounded on Thursday, as the market deemed it unlikely that the United States would release emergency crude reserves or ban exports to ease tight supplies.

Brent futures rose 87 cents, or 1.1%, to settle at $81.95 a barrel, while U.S. crude gained 87 cents, or 1.1%, to settle at $78.30 a barrel. Earlier in the day prices at both benchmarks dropped $2 a barrel.

The U.S. Department of Energy said all "tools are always on the table" to tackle tight energy supply conditions in the market.