KARACHI, Dec 26: The prices of West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil and Light Arab Crude fell by 64 and 66 per cent during the last one year but petrol and diesel prices increased by seven and 52 per cent, respectively.

The crude oil started off with a bullish sentiment by touching an all time high of $147 per barrel in July 2008 but later on, amid global demand concerns and deepening financing crisis, oil prices dropped significantly.

Both WTI crude and Light Arab Crude are at their lowest levels after a gap of four years to $33 per barrel as on Dec 25, down 66 and 64 per cent so far in 2008, respectively.

According to Farhan Mehmood of JS Research, owing to government’s intervention, retail prices of petrol and diesel remained higher than last year mainly due to the fact that the government started recovering subsidies, especially on diesel, when oil prices saw a sharp increase during January-July 2008.

He added that this also led to a price discrepancy between petrol and diesel as historically the country had never seen petrol and diesel prices at the same levels.

During 2008, there were six upward and four downward revisions in oil prices.

On the other hand, deregulated furnace oil and jet fuel prices fell by 34 and 24 per cent, respectively, during 2008, lower than the global prices due to weakening Pakistani rupee.

Furnace oil, which meets 42 per cent of the local oil consumption saw its price surge to an all-time high of around Rs62,000 tons in July 2008. This led to a liquidity crunch in the power sector which still remains despite the fact that its prices had fallen by 63 per cent from its peak.

The ex-refinery price of petrol is Rs18.8 per litre while it sells at Rs57.7 per litre. In 2007, the ex-refinery price was Rs40.8 per litre and the petrol was selling at Rs53.7 per litre.

Similarly, the ex-refinery price of diesel is currently Rs32.4 while it sells at Rs57.10 litre. In 2007, diesel rate was Rs43.7 while its retail price was Rs37.7 per litre. The ex-refinery price of furnace oil is Rs18,750 per ton while it is retailed at Rs23,068 per ton.