Pretoria - Motorists will have to dig deeper into their pockets as all grades of petrol are due to increase next Wednesday.
In a statement on Thursday, the Department of Energy announced that a litre of petrol 93 ULP and LRP will rise by 50 cents a litre, while a litre of 95 ULP and LRP will increase by 48 cents.
In December, a litre of 95 ULP cost R12.85 in Gauteng. Motorists in Gauteng will now have to cough up R13.33 for a litre of 95 ULP.
Meanwhile, a litre of Diesel (0.05% Sulphur) and will increase by 39 cents, while Diesel (0.005% Sulphur) will increase by 37 cents.
The Wholesale price of Illuminating Paraffin will rise by 43 cents and the price of SMNRP of Illuminating Paraffin will increase by 58 cents.
The Maximum Retail Price of LPGas will see a 106.00c/kg increase.
The department said the Rand/US Dollar exchange rate contributed to the increase of the petrol price.
“The Rand strengthened very slightly against the US Dollar from R13.91 to R13.87, on average, during the period under review when compared to the previous one.”
In addition, the key factor that contributed to the increase in the prices of crude oil was the fact that OPEC members agreed to cut production by 1.2 million barrels per from 1 January 2017 during their meeting that was held in Vienna, Austria, on 30 November 2016.
“Furthermore, Russia and other Non-OPEC producers also agreed to cut production by 600 000 barrels per day,” said the department. – SAnews.gov.za
