The Ministry of Mines and Energy says the country’s fuel prices will remain unchanged for the month of July.
The Ministry said the decision was taken after the country recorded an under-recovery on petrol and over-recoveries on both the diesel products.
“That is an under-recovery of 46 cents per litre on petrol and over-recoveries of 4 cents per litre on diesel 50ppm and that of 1 cent per litre on diesel10ppm, respectively. Considering the above, the Ministry is hereby announcing that petrol prices and the prices of both diesel 50ppm and diesel 10ppm will remain unchanged over the course of July 2023,” Ministry Spokesperson, Andreas Simon said on Thursday.
According to the government department, the price of petrol in Walvis Bay will remain at N$19.78 per litre while the price of diesel 50 ppm will remain N$19.05 per litre, and that of diesel 10 ppm will remain N$19.25 per litre.
“Fuel prices across the rest of the country will also remain unchanged.”
According to the ministry, the current political developments in Russia may contribute to further escalation in oil prices, which may influence global inflation coupled with the recent decision by OPEC to cut oil supply.
“The prices of oil and natural gas spiked during the last week of June 2023 as the markets reacted to the recent political developments in the Russian Federation, which is the world’s second largest exporter of oil. The markets are largely focused on whether the unexpected events in Moscow could disrupt global commodity supplies,” Simon said.
Saudi Arabia, one of the world’s biggest producers of crude oil, recently announced that it would cut oil output in July 2023 by 10% or 1 million barrels per day (bpd) from 10 million bpd to 9 million bpd and may extend cuts further if needed.
The latest announcement by the Mines and Energy ministry comes after it kept petrol prices unchanged last month, while the prices of the prices of diesel 50ppm decreased by 80 cents per litre and those of diesel 10ppm decreased by 60 cents per litre, bringing the prices of diesel 50 ppm to N$19.05 per litre while those of diesel 10ppm to N$19.25 per litre.
Namibia is currently in talks with India regarding plans to source cheap fuel from the Asian country.
Namibia consumes 90 million litres of fuel per month on average according to government figures.