KARACHI, Feb 15: The Oil Companies Advisory Committee (OCAC) has raised the price of petrol by Rs1.55 per litre besides increasing prices of HOBC, kerosene oil and light diesel oil (LDO) by Rs1.28 to Rs1.58 per litre from Feb 16 to 28.
Pakistan State Oil (PSO) and Shell Pakistan Limited (SPL) have also raised the prices of diesel by Rs1.65 per litre to Rs23.37. According to the OCAC’s announcement, the ex-depot fixed sale price of petrol SMS 87 RON has been enhanced to Rs34.51 from Rs32.96 per litre, up by 4.70 per cent, while the price of high octane blending component (HOBC) has been pushed to Rs38.41 from Rs36.83 per litre, a rise of 4.3 per cent.
An increase of 7.41 per cent has been made in the kerosene oil price to Rs22.90 from Rs21.32 while LDO price has been fixed at Rs19.58 as compared to Rs18.30 per litre, showing a rise of seven per cent.
OCAC Secretary-General Feroze J. Cawasji in a statement attributed the increase in domestic petroleum prices to the continued upward trend in world oil prices in the wake of the Iraq crisis.
The FOB price of Arabian light crude oil during the last fortnight reached a peak of $30.60 per barrel, a rise of 3.1 per cent as compared to previous fortnight of January 2003, Mr Cawasji said.
Similarly, he said, product prices have also increased sharply and the fortnightly average Arab Gulf FOB price of naphta has increased by $26.17 per ton or 9.88 per cent while kerosene has gone up by $3.08 per barrel or 9.56 per cent.
The average exchange rate of the rupee vis-a-vis the United States dollar improved by only 0.04 paisa during the fortnight.
On Jan 31, the OCAC had raised the prices of all petroleum products by 28 to 77 paisa per litre. Pakistan State Oil and Shell, which enjoy 60 per cent and 30 per cent market share in diesel, had kept the price of diesel unchanged at Rs21.72 per litre in the last fortnight.
