DURBAN - South African motorists will pay more for their fuel price as both petrol and diesel increase on Wednesday.
The Minister of Mineral Resources and Energy Gwede Mantashe announced this adjustment of fuel prices in a statement on Monday citing the increases were based on current local and international factors.
The fuel prices schedule for the different zones will be published tomorrow.
Petrol (both 93 ULP and LRP) will increase by forty three cents per litre while (both 95 ULP and LRP) will increase by forty cents per litre.
Diesel (0.05 percent sulphur) will increase by fifty five cents per litre with diesel (0.005 percent sulphur): increasing fifty four cents per litre.
Illuminating Paraffin at wholesale will also increase by fifty five cents per litre litre.
Maximum LP Gas retail price will increase by forty four cents per kilogram.
South Africa’s fuel prices are adjusted on a monthly basis, informed by international and local factors. International factors include the fact that South Africa imports both crude oil and finished products at a price set at the international level, including importation costs, including shipping costs.
According to the DMRE statement, there were three main reasons for the fuel price adjustments were due to the contribution of the Rand/US Dollar exchange rate as the Rand appreciated on average, against the US Dollar (from 15.17 to 14.93 Rand per USD) during the period under review when compared to the previous one. This led to lower contributions to the Basic Fuel Prices of petrol, diesel and illuminating paraffin by about 24 cents per litre.
The increase in the prices crude oil as the average brent crude oil price increased by almost 20 percent from $42.10 to $49.20 per barrel during the period under review. Crude oil prices continued to climb after the American Petroleum Institute (API) reported a crude oil inventory drawdown of 4.785 million barrels for the week ending on 25 December 2020.
The Petroleum Products Prices regarding finished products, the movement in international prices of petrol diesel and illuminating paraffin increased by about 67.29, 80.01 and 79.82 c/I cents per litre respectively during the period under review.
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