In a bid to stem at least some of the losses they are incurring due to price and supply pressures created by the crisis in West Asia, oil marketing companies (OMCs) on Friday (May 15, 2026) increased the prices of petrol and diesel by ₹3 per liter across all variants, including regular, premium and high-octane products.
With the latest hike, the price of the regular petrol variant in Delhi is now ₹97.77 per litre, while the price of diesel is ₹90.67 per litre, up from ₹94.77 and ₹87.67 earlier.
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This is the first major hike – defined as more than ₹1 per liter – for regular retail fuel since an increase of around ₹9 per liter that was phased in during the week of March 2022 at the height of Russia’s actions in Ukraine. Since then OMCs regularly introduce small hikes of a few paise but no big hikes.
The price hike comes at a time when the government is talking about OMCs incurring losses of around ₹1,000 crore a day from petrol, diesel and LPG combined due to high oil prices. Last Sunday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi also asked the country’s citizens to reduce the consumption of petrol and diesel to reduce oil imports into India.
Sukhmal Jain, former director of marketing at state-owned OMC Bharat Petroleum, told The Hindu that the latest hike in fuel prices was necessitated by the recent disruption in global energy markets.
“The recent adjustment in fuel prices is a calibrated and necessary step to partially offset the surge in oil prices, transportation and operational costs faced by Indian OMCs,” Mr. Jain said. “It will certainly provide some relief and support the sector’s ability to maintain fuel supplies and continued investment in energy infrastructure.”
Hike overboard
Price growth was marginally steeper in Kolkata and Mumbai. People living in Kolkata on Friday woke up to petrol prices rising by ₹3.29 per liter to ₹108.74, while diesel prices increased by ₹3.11 to ₹95.13 per litre.
Mumbai witnessed an increase of ₹3.14 for every liter of petrol, taking the retail price to ₹106.68. Diesel price increased by ₹3.11 per liter to ₹93.14.
Additionally, the premium ‘XG’ variant is now priced at ₹95.99 per liter in Delhi, compared to ₹92.99 for each liter before the hike. High-octane XP95 is now priced at ₹104.88 per litre, up from ₹101.89.
Limited relief for OMCs
Earlier this week, Union Petroleum Minister Hardeep Singh Puri spoke about his concerns about OMC’s ability to keep retail fuel prices stable amid losses and shortages.
He said OMCs are facing a shortfall of up to ₹ 2 lakh crore in the current quarter, with losses expected to rise to around ₹ 1 lakh crore.
However, despite this increase, OMCs may still face a lackluster recovery, according to Sourav Mitra, oil and gas partner at Grant Thornton Bharat.
“Prior to the price hike, under-yielding was around ₹ 13-15 per liter for petrol to ₹ 17-18 per liter for diesel. Hence, retail sales were expected to increase by nearly ₹ 10 per liter to cover 50% under-yielding,” he said. “In this context, the current increase remains below estimates.”
Petrol consumption in India rose by 6.36% and diesel by 0.25% in April compared to the same month last year.
First big hike since April 2022
Friday’s (15 May 2026) fuel price hike is the first major price increase since April 2022, when the price of petrol was raised by around ₹9 per liter to ₹105.41 between 28 March 2022 and 6 April 2022. This coincided with events in Ukraine in late February 2022.
India’s crude oil basket averaged $112.87 per barrel and $102.97 per barrel in March and April 2022, respectively, according to government data. Currently, the price of oil is $106.18 per barrel.
Since the last big hike in 2022, OMCs have introduced smaller hikes of less than ₹1 per litre, the last of which was by 5 paise in October 2024.
In May 2022, the government reduced the excise duty on petrol by ₹8 and ₹6 per liter on diesel. This reduction was passed on to customers in the form of lower prices for both fuels.
During the latest crisis due to the disruption of energy transport through the Strait of Hormuz, the government in March reduced excise duty on petrol and diesel by ₹10 per litre. However, this reduction was not passed on to customers and was instead aimed at providing a cushion to open intermediaries to absorb under-recovery.
Published – 15 May 2026 06:54 IST
