Christmas cheer has come early this year to motorists. Oil marketing companies have reduced the retail selling price of petrol by Rs 0.91 per litre in Delhi (including state levies) with a corresponding decrease in other states. Meanwhile, diesel retail price is down by Rs 0.84 per litre.

With this, the latest price of petrol per litre stands at Rs 63.33 in Delhi, Rs 70.73 in Kolkata, Rs 70.95 in Mumbai and Rs 66.05 in Chenai. Diesel prices per litre are now Rs 52.51 in Delhi, Rs 57.08 in Kolkata, Rs 60.11 in Mumbai and Rs 55.93 in Chennai. The differential between the two fuels per litre (in Delhi) now stands at Rs 10.82 per litre.  

The falling price of the fuels is thanks to a slide in global crude oil prices. On November 27, crude prices plunged after the apex body Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) said it wouldn't cut production levels to stem the collapse in oil prices that have fallen 40 percent to $69.11 a barrel since June 2014 when prices were as high as $115 a barrel. Oil prices are at their lowest levels since September 2010, in part due to oversupply, lower demand possibly from China and a boom in North American production. It is understood that the growing output of US production and also of shale gas that has stemmed the once-powerful OPEC.

For countries like India, which imports nearly 80 percent of its oil requirements (last year, India’s crude oil import bill totaled $143 billion), this can only be good news.