Prices for fuel — petrol, diesel and illuminating paraffin — will dip from Wednesday. (Oupa Nkosi)
Prices for fuel — petrol, diesel and illuminating paraffin — will dip from Wednesday on the back of lower international oil prices and a stronger local currency, the department of mineral and petroleum resources said on Monday.
The retail price of 93-grade and 95-grade petrol will ease by four cents a litre. The wholesale cost of diesel with a maximum sulphur content of 0.05% will decrease by 56 cents a litre while that for diesel with 0.005% sulphur will drop by 57 cents.
Illuminating paraffin will cost 37 cents less than last month, and the maximum retail price for liquified petroleum (LP) gas will drop to 132 cents a kilogramme in most of the country and by 151 cents in the Western Cape.
South Africa’s fuel prices are adjusted on a monthly basis, and are informed by international and local factors. These include South Africa’s import of crude oil and finished products at a price set at the international level, which includes importation costs.
The latest adjustments were mainly driven by a decrease in the average Brent Crude oil price, which eased to $67.01 from $69.06, induced by an increase from Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries as well as non-Opec producers, the department of mineral and petroleum resources said.
It was also driven by the slower global economic growth outlook and uncertain trade tariffs, while the acceleration of the local currency against the dollar cushioned the prices by close to two cents a litre on all products.
The implementation of the slate levy — a self-adjusting mechanism in South Africa’s fuel pricing, used to balance under-recoveries and over-recoveries in the basic fuel price — also supported the decrease in the fuel price.