KARACHI, Sept 30: The Oil Companies Advisory Committee (OCAC) on Tuesday curtailed prices of all petroleum products by 55-65 paisa per litre. The new prices will be effective from October 1-15.

Pakistan State Oil and Shell Pakistan Limited have also slashed diesel price by 74 paisa to Rs21 from Rs21.74 per litre.

The ex-depot sales price of petrol has been cut by 60 paisa to Rs30.73 from Rs31.33 per litre followed by rate cut in HOBC by 59 paisa to Rs35.29 from Rs35.88 per litre.

The new prices of kerosene and light diesel oil have been fixed at Rs19.52 and Rs16.45, respectively, as compared to the last fortnight’s prices of Rs20.07 and Rs17.10 per litre.

The OCAC statement said that product prices in the Arab Gulf region continued to decline during the last fortnight. The declining trend, however, halted when Opec announced production cuts as a result of which prices started increasing during the last few days.

The average price of naphtha declined by $11.45 per ton or 4.76 per cent, while the average price of kerosene declined by $1.25 per barrel or 4.20 per cent. The average exchange rate of the rupee plunged against the dollar by six paisa during the fortnight.

On September 15, the OCAC had slashed the prices of petrol, HOBC and kerosene by 13-64 paisa, while the committee had raised the price of light diesel oil by 11 paisa.

In the last fortnight, PSO and SPL had increased the ex-depot price of diesel by 42 paisa per litre.