Business Reporter
THE Ministry of Mines and Energy has announced that diesel prices will decrease by 125 cents per litre and petrol prices will remain unchanged for the month of December.
These adjustments will become effective at 00:01 on 7 December 2022.
The downward revision in the fuel prices is accorded to a number of reasons according to the mines’ ministry, who shared that rising Covid-19 cases in China, ambiguity about the G7 oil price cap and a rise in U.S oil stocks have put downward pressure on oil prices over the course of November 2022, especially diesel prices.
The oil price cap is scheduled to come into force on 5 December 2022, and the oil markets are still in limbo as far as the finer details on the price cap are concerned. Although members of the European Union (EU) recently met to find consensus on a joint oil price cap, the negotiations broke down as members failed to agree on the best price point.
According to the mines ministry’s calculations, the average price for Unleaded Petrol 95 over the period of 1 to 25 November 2022 stood at USD 105.863 per barrel (compared to USD 100.766 per barrel at the end of October 2022), a moderate increase of about USD5 over the review period.
Additionally, the average price for Diesel 50 ppm over the period of 01-25 November 2022 is at USD131.260 per barrel, (compared to USD 142.054 per barrel at the of October 2022), a significant decrease of about USD11 per barrel over the review period.
Furthermore, the exchange rate figures for the period of 1 to 25 November 2022 indicate that the Namibian dollar has appreciated against the USD at 17.5082 per USD, compared to 18.1048 per USD at the end of October 2022.
The mines ministry noted that this currency appreciation contributes to fuel price over-recoveries and has had an ultimate positive effect in terms of the pockets of local fuel consumers. Therefore, the ministry recorded a combination of a low under-recovery on petrol and high over-recovery on diesel, namely an under-recovery of 9 cents per litre on petrol and an over-recovery of 125 cents per litre on diesel.
File photo for illustrative purposes only.
