Simonis Storm has warned Namibian motorists to brace themselves for another fuel price hike in the coming weeks due to a weakening Rand and rising global oil prices.
“Given our weaker Rand and higher global oil price expectations, we do foresee two consecutive fuel price hikes in February and March 2022.This implies that oil prices will remain elevated throughout 2022 .We do forecast a weaker Rand towards the end of the first quarter, with the Rand likely to average R15.60 against the US dollar,” the brokerage company said.
This comes as the Ministry of Mines and Energy announced a 30 cent increase in the price of petrol and 40 cents for diesel for the month of February, effective from today, bringing the new fuel price for Walvis Bay to N$15.95/litre for petrol and N$15.98/litre for diesel.
“The MME will fund the under-recovery using funds from the National Energy Fund (NEF). The under recoveries incurred during January 2022 will amount to N$67 million. In the last twelve months, MME incurred a net under-recovery of N$9.28 on petrol and N$5.60 on diesel. This implies that petrol and diesel prices should have increased to N$20.63 and N$16.98 respectively. With the objective of providing some financial relief to consumers, fuel pump prices have not reached these levels owing to the NEF.
“Taking the above into consideration, the Ministry of Mines and Energy (MME) incurred an under-recovery of 62 cents on petrol and 90 cents on diesel. MME therefore decided to increase local petrol and diesel prices by 30 and 40 cents per litre respectively.”
Citing high global oil prices, South Africa on Tuesday also increased the price of petrol by 53 cents per litre and 80 cents per litre for diesel, thus 95 octane petrol inland will cost R20.14 per litre with the same fuel costing R19.42 per litre at the coast.
The Automobile Association of South Africa has launched a petition calling for a complete review of the country’s petrol price and how it is calculated.
