Petrol, diesel prices hiked by ₹3 per litre each

Vehicles lined up in Guntur City for petrol and diesel. File. | Photo Credit: T. Vijaya Kumar Petrol and diesel prices on Friday (May 15, 2026) were hiked by ₹3 per litre each as oil companies passed on part of the spike in global energy prices to consumers.Petrol price was hiked to ₹97.77 per litre from ₹94.77 in the national capital. Diesel now costs ₹90.67 as against ₹89.67 per litre previously, according to industry sources.The retail selling price of petrol in Mumbai, Kolkata, and Chennai will now be ₹106.68, ₹108.74, and ₹103.67 respectively.Diesel, on the other hand, will now cost ₹93.14 in Mumbai, ₹95.13 in Kolkata, and ₹95.25 in Chennai.The increase is a 10th of the desired hike needed to account for the surge in global energy rates since the start of the West Asia conflict.State-owned oil firms had kept fuel price unchanged for 11 weeks despite a surge in input cost, but passed on part of the increase once operations became financially unsustainable, the sources said.Prices have remained on freeze since April 2022, but had a one-off reduction of ₹2 a litre each on petrol and diesel in March 2024 just before the Lok Sabha elections.State-owned Indian Oil Corporation (IOC), Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd (BPCL) and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd (HPCL) had abandoned the daily price revision in April 2022 to insulate domestic consumers from a steep price increase that was warranted because of international oil prices shooting through the roof post Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.They incurred heavy losses in the first half of the 2022-23 fiscal year, which they recouped when rates fell in subsequent months.But the war in West Asia has again sent international oil prices soaring by over 50%.The basket of crude oil that India imports averaged $69 per barrel in February before the war in West Asia broke out. It averaged $113-114 per barrel in subsequent months. Published - May 15, 2026 06:54 am IST