Petrol prices in Delhi shot past Rs 83-mark on Monday to settle at Rs 83.71 a litre as oil marketing companies (OMCs) continued to raise their retail cost for sixth day In a row. The prices were increased by a margin of 30 paisa per litre from a level of Rs 83.41 a litre on Sunday.

The OMCs also raised the price of diesel by 26 paisa per litre to Rs 73.87 a litre as against Rs 73.61 a litre a day earlier.

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With the increase, retail price of petrol has inched closer to all time high levels of Rs 84 a litre, that it touched two years back on October 4, 2018.

Given the rate of daily increase by OMCs, that milestone may be achieved as early as Tuesday or Wednesday.

If this rise in oil price continues then the petrol rates across the country may hit an all-time high level and will breach the mark.

Meanwhile, Petrol in Mumbai reached Rs 90.01 a litre from the previous day and diesel jumped to Rs 80.51 per litre.

In Chennai and Kolkata, petrol reached Rs 86.61 and Rs 85.19 respectively while diesel prices were at Rs 79.30 and Rs 77.44 on Monday.

Global crude prices have firmed up recently over the news of successful coronavirus vaccine. It has risen almost $10 a barrel in last one month to reach closer to $50 a barrel now. However, even at that level, it is far less than average crude price of $80.08 a barrel in October 2018 when petrol prices reached highs of Rs 84 a litre in the national capital.

With Monday’s increase, fuel prices have now increased on 15 of the past 18 days with petrol prices rising by Rs 2.65 per litre and diesel by 3.41 a litre.

Petrol prices had been static since September 22, and diesel rates hadn’t changed since October 2.

Though retail pricing of petrol and diesel has been deregulated and oil marketing companies were following a daily price revision formula, the same was suspended for almost two months to prevent volatility in international oil markets from impacting fuel prices regularly during the pandemic.

But with crude on the boil again on news of a successful coronavirus vaccine launch soon, the OMCs lost their patience and finally resorted to price increase to cover for their under recovery on the sale of two petroleum products.

The benchmark Brent crude has crossed $49 a barrel on Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) lately. It has remained over $44 a barrel for the most part of November.