Fuel prices hold steady as Brent crude nears $102 amid fresh US-Iran strikes
Brent crude edged toward $102 a barrel on Thursday after tit-for-tat strikes between the US and Iran, even as pump prices in major Indian cities held steady.
Petrol and diesel prices in Delhi, Mumbai and Bengaluru were unchanged on Thursday, even as global crude benchmarks climbed amid renewed military exchanges between the United States and Iran.
Brent crude edged toward $102 a barrel during the session, with traders tracking the tit-for-tat strikes between Washington and Tehran. The escalation has kept oil markets on edge, though the immediate impact on India's retail fuel rates was not visible in the three metros.
Fuel pricing in India is reviewed daily by state-run oil marketing companies, who factor in international crude benchmarks, the rupee-dollar exchange rate and their own margins. Because pump rates are revised with a lag and are influenced by a basket of crude grades rather than a single benchmark, a one-day spike in Brent does not always translate into an immediate change at the pump.
Rates in Delhi, Mumbai and Bengaluru — three of the country's largest consumption centres — were left untouched for the day. The three cities are typically watched as bellwethers for broader retail pricing trends across the country.
The movement in crude comes against the backdrop of heightened geopolitical tension in West Asia, a region that accounts for a significant share of India's crude imports. Any sustained rise in prices there tends to feed into the country's import bill, current account position and, eventually, consumer inflation.
For now, motorists in the three metros saw no change in what they pay at the pump, with the next revision expected to reflect how crude markets digest the latest round of strikes.