Petrol price to decrease on Wednesday

The Department of Energy has published the official fuel price adjustments for October, showing a minimal petrol prices decrease for motorists at the pumps. Mid-month fuel price data showed a possible decrease in fuel prices; however, the key factors in determining costs reversed their beneficial positions over the last two weeks.

Oil prices moved higher over the course of September, and jumped again on Monday following OPEC+’s decision to maintain a gradual supply hike, Bloomberg reported.

OPEC+ ministers ratified the 400,000 barrel-a-day supply hike scheduled for November, according to a statement from the group. The decision comes as the world’s biggest oil company, Saudi Aramco, said the global natural-gas shortage has boosted demand for crude by 500,000 barrels a day.

Vitol Group said that OPEC+ production policy will be the main factor influencing oil prices over the coming months. Brent Crude has climbed above $81 per barrel, while Goldman Sachs sees Brent at $90 a barrel by year-end.

The rand continued to weaken gradually over the course of last month but has managed to stay below R15:00 against the dollar in recent sessions.

According to the department, fuel prices will change as follows:

Petrol 95: decrease of 1 cents per litre;
Petrol 93: decrease of 4 cents per litre;
Diesel 0.05%: increase of 22.8 cents per litre;
Diesel 0.005%: increase of 22.8 cents per litre;
Illuminating Paraffin: increase 43 cents per litre.
The new prices come into effect on Wednesday, 6 October.

Movement in prices is typically affected by two main factors – international petroleum costs, and the movement in the rand/dollar exchange rate.
The average international product prices for Petrol, Diesel and Illuminating Paraffin increased during the period under review, the department said. “The rand appreciated against the US Dollar during the period under review, on average, when compared to the previous period.

It said that the average rand/US dollar exchange rate for the period 27 August 2021 to 30 September 2021 was R14.56 compared to R14.77 during the previous period. This led to a lower contribution to the basic fuel prices on petrol, diesel and illuminating paraffin by 12.01 c/l, 11.35 c/l and 11.27 c/l respectively.

The combined cumulative petrol and diesel slate balances at the end of August 2021 amounted to a negative balance of R1.37 billion.

The Department of Energy said that in line with the provisions of the self-adjusting slate levy mechanism, a slate levy of 13.16 cents/litre (decrease of 2.2 cents/litre) will be implemented into the price structures of petrol and diesel with effect from 6 October 2021.