Petrol and diesel prices were hiked for the twelfth straight day today. Petrol rate was up by 36 paise per litre on an average to Rs 77.83 per litre in Delhi, Rs 80.47 per litre in Kolkata, Rs 85.65 per litre in Mumbai and Rs 80.8 per litre in Chennai.

Fuel rates are revised on a daily basis by their state-owned Indian Oil Corporation (IOCL) on their website.

Petrol price in many Indian cities has crossed Rs 80 mark, these were in the cities of Kolkata, Mumbai, Chennai, Bhopal, Gangtok, Guwahati, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Jalandhar, Patna, Srinagar and Trivandrum.

Diesel prices across India, on the other hand, was increased by 23 paise per litre on an average to Rs 68.75 per litre in Delhi, Rs 71.3 per litre in Kolkata, Rs 73.2 per litre in Mumbai and Rs 72.58 per litre in Chennai.

Fuel prices have been on a steady rise despite fall in international crude oil benchmarks. WTI (West Taxes Intermediate) was down to $70.68 per barrel from over $71 margin last week while Brent was trading lower at $78.66 per barrel (-0.20 percent) from its multi-year high of $80 last week.

Domestic rates of fuel are being hiked to recover the losses after a 19-day hiatus in the pre-election period of Karnataka assembly polls and bring the prices in line with international prices that were on a steady rise in the last few weeks.

Global oil prices were pushed higher last week by OPEC (Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries) that keep the rates volatile by restricting supply. It was worsened by supply issues in Venezuela which has reduced production from 2.3 million barrels per day in 2016 to 1.6 bpd in 2018. Bad weather in Libya and disruption in supply from Iran due to reimpose of sanctions by the USA also added to the woes.