Essar cuts petrol, diesel retail prices

With falling global crude oil prices, the Ruias’ Essar Oil has decided to slash petrol and diesel prices by Rs 0.50 to Rs 2.50 a litre with effect from July 16, bringing them at par with rates of public sector oil firms.

Essar says it would be able to break-even at these prices or make minimal profit. The other private fuel retailer, Reliance Industries, is already selling fuel at par with rates of public sector firms at its 70-odd retail outlets.

Last week, the state-run oil marketing companies—- Indian Oil Corporation, Bharat Petroleum Corporation and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation— raised petrol and diesel rates by around 10 per cent, or Rs 4 and Rs 2 a litre, respectively, to partly align these with crude oil prices. Oil marketing companies at present are selling petrol at Rs 48.76 a litre and diesel at Rs 36.70 a litre in Mumbai and at Rs 32.87 a litre for diesel and Rs 44.63 per litre for petrol in Delhi.

At present, Essar Oil sells petrol and diesel at par with PSU rates in three states— Gujarat, Orissa and Karnataka. In the other states, it sells auto fuel at rates higher than those of state-run marketing firms.

Essar links its fuel prices to international oil prices. “Crude oil rates have fallen and thus we would be passing on the benefit to our customers by aligning the fuel prices to international prices,” a company official told Business Standard.

The company, which operates around 1,240 retail outlets, says it’s selling fuel at a price differential of Rs 2.5 a litre on petrol and up to Rs 2 a litre on diesel in the north and north-eastern states.

It had revised fuel prices on June 16 between Rs 1-3.50 a litre for petrol and between Rs 1-2.5 for diesel.