Fill up your tanks: Petrol price increases for April announced

Despite the reduction in levies meant to give South Africans some reprieve from spiralling fuel prices, Mineral Resources and Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe on Monday announced that fuel prices are still set to see an increase.

Mantashe announced the adjustment of fuel prices based on current local and international factors, with effect from 6 April 2022.

The fuel prices for April will be adjusted as follows:

The price of petrol:

• (93 ULP & LRP) will increase by twenty-eight cents per litre
• (95 ULP & LRP) will increase by thirty-six cents per litre

The price of diesel:

• (0.05% sulphur) will increase by R1.53
• (0.005% sulphur) will increase by R1.69

The price of illuminating paraffin (wholesale):

• Increases by R2.66 per litre
• Single Maximum National Retail Price for illuminating paraffin increases by R 3.55 per litre
• Maximum LPGas retail price will increase by R2.50 per litre

The fuel prices are adjusted on a monthly basis and are 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, e.g. shipping costs.

The main reasons for the fuel price adjustments are:

Crude oil prices

The department said the average Brent Crude oil price increased from $96.47 to $109.37 during the period under review.

Other factors include:

• The continued sanctions imposed on Russia, despite Russia’s discounted crude oil prices is disrupting energy flows as Russia is one of the biggest global exporters of oil.

• OPEC and Non-OPEC members are limiting fuel supply even though demand has been increasing globally due to relaxed covid-19 restrictions. This has been ongoing even before the Russia/ Ukraine conflict began.

• Yemen rebels attacked storage facilities in Saudi Arabia, resulting in supply disruptions.
• Volatility in the market resulted in crude oil price decline due to fuel demand concerns in China, (a large importer of crude oil) following an increase in Covid cases which led to a lockdown. However, this decrease is not enough to offset the overall average increase in oil prices during this period.

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The department announced a further temporary reduction in the general fuel levy of R1.50 for the next two months from Wednesday 6 April 2022 to Tuesday 31 May 2022.

The total fuel levy will now amount to R2.44 per litre for petrol and R2.30 per litre for diesel.

“This intervention will bring much-needed relief to motorists because it will cushion the high fuel price increases that were anticipated this month which were as a result of global factors,” said Mantashe.

The increases in both petrol and diesel would have been close to R2.00 per litre and over R3.00 per litre respectively if there was no intervention, he concluded.

Compiled by Narissa Subramoney

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