New Delhi, Nov 19 (IANS): Oil marketing companies (OMCs) did not revise the retail price of petrol and diesel on Thursday maintaining the trend set almost two months back when fuel prices were last revised.

So, petrol price in the national capital continued to remain at Rs 81.06 per litre. In Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata, the fuel was sold for Rs 87.74, Rs 84.14 and Rs 82.59 per litre, respectively.

Diesel prices in Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata were at Rs 70.46, Rs 76.86, Rs 75.95 and Rs 73.99, respectively.

With no revision on Thursday, the petrol price has now remained at the same level for 58 days now, while diesel price has been static for 48 days.

However, the sharp firming up of crude prices has changed the dynamics. The average price of crude for OMCs in October was around $40 a barrel just a tad lower than the previous month. Thus the companies did not revise auto fuel prices as the differential was very low. But the crude average in the first fortnight of November is close to $43 a barrel. It is over $44 a barrel on Thursday.

Every dollar increase in the price of crude results in a retail price of petrol and diesel to be increased by up to 40 paise per litre. This would mean that the fuel prices should be up by at least Rs 1.20 per litre by now. However, oil companies have kept fuel prices static even when there was a need to revise it downwards last month. That saving would prevent OMCs from increasing petrol and diesel prices by a higher margin and changes could only be moderate.