Big diesel price drop — but bad news for petrol

South African motorists with diesel cars will be paying substantially less to refill their tanks in the coming month, but petrol car drivers will be coughing up more.

The Department of Mineral Resources and Energy has published the country’s official fuel prices from Wednesday, 7 December 2022.

It showed that 500ppm and 50ppm wholesale diesel prices would decrease by R1.57 and R1.52 per litre, respectively.

These won’t necessarily directly reflect changes at the pumps, as each fuel station can set its own diesel retail prices.

Despite the diesel price decrease and petrol price increase, wholesale diesel prices will remain more expensive than retail petrol prices.

Both grades of unleaded petrol will cost 59 cents per litre (c/l) more than last month.

That will increase the price of unleaded 93 and 95 at inland pumps to R23.16 and R23.46 per litre, respectively. On the coast, the retail prices will be R22.51 and R22.81, respectively.

The fuel price changes for December 2022 are summarised below:

• 93/95 unleaded petrol — 59 cents increase
• 500ppm diesel — R1.57 decrease
• 50ppm diesel — R1.52 decrease
• Illuminating paraffin — 57 cents decrease

The department said the average international product prices for all the abovementioned fuels increased during the period under review.

The department also approved a net increase of 21.26 cents per litre in the annual margin adjustment on petrol and a net increase of 0.67 cents per litre on diesel and illuminating paraffin wholesale prices.

An increase in the slate levy contributed a further 13.14 cents per litre, made necessary by the combined cumulative petrol and diesel slate balances at the end of October 2022, amounting to a negative balance of R9.697 billion.

However, the average value of the Rand against the US dollar increased compared to the previous period.

Between 28 October and 2 December 2022, the currency traded at an average of about R17.53 compared to R18.11 in the previous month.

“This led to a lower contribution to the Basic Fuel Prices on petrol, diesel and illuminating paraffin by 40.31 c/l, 48.94 c/l  and 48.98 c/l, respectively,” the department said.

The table below summarises the new prices of unleaded 93 and unleaded 95 petrol in South Africa, effective from Wednesday, 7 December 2022.

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