South African consumers can breathe a bit easier in January after the Minister of Mineral Resources and Energy, Gwede Mantashe, announced a decrease in the price of petrol at fuel pumps in January - a month often labelled “Janu-worry” due to financial pressure.
From Wednesday, January 3, 2024 motorists can expect:
- Petrol 93: 62 cents per litre (c/l) decrease.
- Petrol 95: 76 c/l decrease
- Diesel (0.05% sulphur): 118.32 c/l decrease.
- Diesel (0.005% sulphur): 126.32 c/l decrease.
- Illuminating Paraffin (wholesale): 93.00 c/l decrease.
– Maximum LPGas Retail Price: 11.00 c/kg increase.
The fuel prices schedule for the different zones would be published on Tuesday, the 2nd of January 2024.
In a statement the Department of Minerals and Energy said the main reasons for the fuel price adjustments were due to a decrease in the average Brent crude oil price from $82.62 (R1533) to $77.35 during the period under review, mainly due to, increased production by the US, Venezuela, Guyana, and other non-OPEC countries despite the announcement by OPEC to cut production.
Furthermore, the average international product prices of petrol, diesel and illuminating paraffin decreased in line with the lower crude oil prices.
However, LPG prices increased due to higher freight cost. These factors led to lower contributions to the Basic Fuel Prices of petrol, diesel and illuminating paraffin by 50.83 c/l, 105.81 c/l and 99.00 c/l, respectively.
The rand depreciated slightly on average, against the dollar from R18.57 to R18.66 per dollar during the period under review when compared to the previous one.
“This led to higher contributions to the Basic Fuel Prices of petrol, diesel and illuminating paraffin by 5.30 c/l, 5.83 c/l and 6.00 c/l, respectively,” the statement said.
The Department of Minerals and Energy said the cumulative slate balance on petrol and diesel at the end of November 2023 had a positive balance of R1.8 billion.
“Therefore, a slate levy of zero c/l will be implemented in the price structure of petrol and diesel with effect from the 3rd of January 2024. This means that the motorists will benefit by 26.32 cents per litre since the slate levy will decrease from 26.32 to zero cents per litre,” it said.
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