Johannesburg - The price of petrol and diesel is going up again from this Wednesday, October 4, the Department of Energy has announced.
Petrol prices will rise by 25 cents a litre in the case of 93 Octane and 29 cents a litre for 95 Octane, while all grades of diesel go up by 42 c/l and illuminating paraffin sees a 39 c/l price hike.
But what does this translate to at the forecourt?
As the table below illustrates, a litre of 95 Unleaded now creeps past the R14 mark in Gauteng (R14.01), while those at the coast will pay R13.52.
* As diesel prices are not regulated, they do vary from forecourt to forecourt. Our figures are an estimation based on a survey of five stations in Cape Town and five in Johannesburg. The prices varied by up to 45 cents a litre in each region, which shows that it pays to shop around and find the best price within a convenient radius.
Why prices are rising again
Although the rand actually worked in our favour during the past month, from which October’s fuel price is calculated, this was outweighed by higher international oil prices.
The average rand-dollar exchange rate was R13.08 during September, compared to 13.21 in August, which would have resulted in a 4 c/l price decrease, had oil prices remained stable.
However, oil prices increased by 12 percent during the month and according to the Department of Energy this was mainly due to improved compliance on production cuts by OPEC countries and evidence that crude oil stocks in the US are falling faster than expected. Diesel stocks decreased even more sharply than petrol, which is why diesel carries a heavier penalty this month.
There’s likely to be even more bad news for motorists in November, with the rand having lost considerable ground in the past week. At the time of writing (October 2) the local currency was trading at R13.58 to the US dollar.