Another fuel price hike comes next week
The Ministry of Mines and Energy has announced another fuel price increase which will see the price of both petrol and diesel increase by 30c, bring petrol to N$14.45 per litre and diesel to N$14.18, effective 6 October.
Last month, the price of the prices of petrol increased by 60 cents per litre and diesel by 30 cents per litre.
Spokesperson of the ministry, Andreas Simon said the decision was made because an under-recovery of 48.975 cents/litre was recorded on petrol while 50ppm diesel recorded an under-recovery of 37.809 cents/litre.
“Owing to a series of events, first of which was a hurricane storm in the Gulf of Mexico, then uncertainties around the outcome of OPEC-plus meetings, and lastly the looming global energy crunch as China continues to grapple with energy supplies, as well as some countries in Europe, international prices for refined petroleum products, have been fluctuating significantly during the period under review,” Simon said.
The average price of refined petrol increased by US$3, from US$82 in August to US$85 in October, whilst the average price of refined diesel increased by US$4, from US$75 in August to US$79 in September.
“The hurricane storm in the Gulf of Mexico has disrupted supply by damaging some of the oil facilities in that region. Moreover, OPEC-plus is still struggling to ramp up oil supply to agreed levels so as to match demand as the global market emerges from the Covid pandemic. This has left a shortage of supply in the market and increased the oil prices as result,” Simon added.
During the period under review, the local currency has appreciated against the US Dollar, from an average of N$14.77 in August to an average of N$14.42 in September 2021.
“This has helped keep the recorded under-recoveries lower than they would have been if it remained the same,” Simon explained.
