In response to the price and supply pressures created by the West Asia crisis, oil-marketing companies on Friday (May 15, 2026) hiked the prices of petrol and diesel by ₹3 per litre across all variants.
That is, the latest price hikes extend to both the regular variants of petrol and diesel alongside the premium and high-octane products.
Petrol and diesel prices hike LIVE updates
Effectively, with the latest hike, the price of the regular variant of petrol is now ₹97.77 per litre in Delhi while that of diesel is ₹90.67 per litre, up from ₹94.77 and ₹87.67, respectively, earlier.
This is the first major hike — of more than ₹1 a litre — on regular retail fuel since the approximately ₹9 per litre hike executed in a staggered manner over the course of a week in March 2022 at the peak of the Russian actions in Ukraine. Since then, OMCs have periodically implemented tiny hikes of a few paise, but no major hikes.
The price hikes come at a time when the government has been talking about the losses being borne by the OMCs — of approximately ₹ 1,000 crore a day — due to high oil prices while normal fuel prices had so far not been raised. Prime Minister Narendra Modi last Sunday also asked citizens of the country to reduce their consumption of petrol and diesel.
Hike across the board
The fuel price hikes have been marginally steeper in Kolkata and Mumbai. Those living in Kolkata woke to petrol prices being hiked by ₹3.29 per litre to ₹108.74 on Friday, while diesel prices were increased by ₹3.11 to ₹95.13 per litre.
Mumbai witnessed a hike of ₹3.14 for every litre of petrol, taking the retail price to ₹106.68. The price of diesel was increased by ₹3.11 for every litre to ₹93.14.
Further, the price of the premium variant, that is, ‘XG’, is now priced at ₹95.99 per litre in Delhi as compared to ₹92.99 for every litre before the hike.
Whilst the high-octane, XP95, is now priced at ₹104.88 per litre, having increased from ₹101.89 for every litre.
First major hike since April 2022
Friday’s (May 15, 2026) fuel price hikes are the first major price increases since April 2022 when the price of petrol rose about ₹9 per litre to ₹105.41 in a staggered manner between March 28, 2022, and April 6, 2022. This coincided with the peak of the Russian actions in Ukraine which had commenced late February the same year.
According to government data, India’s crude oil basket averaged $112.87 per barrel and $102.97 per barrel in March and April of 2022
Since then, the OMCs have implemented smaller hikes of less than ₹1 a litre, the latest of which was by 5 paise in October 2024.
In May 2022, the government cut the excise duty on petrol and diesel by ₹8 and ₹6 per litre, respectively. This cut was passed on to customers in the form of lower prices of the two fuels.
During the latest crisis due to disruptions in the energy traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, the Union government in March reduced the excise duty on petrol and diesel by ₹10 each for every litre. This cut, however, was not passed on to customers and was instead aimed at providing a cushion to OMCs absorbing under-recoveries.
Earlier this week, Union Petroleum Minister Hardeep Singh Puri had spoken about his concerns about the OMCs’ ability to hold retail fuel prices steady amidst the losses and under-recoveries being incurred.
Limited relief
Mr. Puri had further mentioned OMCs are staring at under-recoveries of up to ₹2 lakh crore in the ongoing quarter, with losses expected to rise to about ₹1 lakh crore.
According to Prashant Vasisht, Senior Vice President and Co-Group Head of Corporate Ratings at ICRA, the latest hike provides “limited relief” to oil marketing companies.
He separately added they may have to “relook at the retail prices in case elevated crude oil prices persist”, implying that further hikes are possible.
India’s crude oil basket averaged $114.48 per barrel in April and $105.87 per barrel till date in May.
This coincides with the country’s consumption of petrol and diesel increasing 6.36% and 0.25%, respectively, in April as compared to the same month last year.
This week the government also affirmed that the country possessed 60 days of crude oil reserves, 60 days of natural gas and 45 days of LPG rolling stock.
Separately, earlier this week, the government also affirmed that the country possessed 60 days of crude oil reserves, 60 days of natural gas and 45 days of LPG rolling stock..
Published - May 15, 2026 06:54 am IST
