India’s public sector oil marketing companies (OMCs) —Indian Oil, Bharat Petroleum, and Hindustan Petroleum—are facing severe stress as they have kept retail prices of regular petrol, diesel, and household cooking gas unchanged despite the surge in global prices amid the West Asia crisis, a senior Petroleum Ministry official said Friday. According to Sujata Sharma, joint secretary in the Petroleum Ministry, the OMCs’ combined under-recoveries on these three fuels is estimated at about Rs 30,000 crore a month. In addition to these three fuels, the OMCs are also losing money on sale of aviation turbine fuel, or jet fuel, for domestic flights. Estimated losses on jet fuel sales were not immediately available. The comments come at a time when discussions on potential fuel price hikes have picked up pace within the government, according to sources in the know. The OMCs have also been pushing for a price hike, it is learnt.…