The price of petrol for all grades will increase by 71c a litre from Wednesday, the Department of Energy announced on Monday.

The latest increase will take the per litre price of 95 octane petrol to R14.76 inland from December 6, and R14.27 at the coast. This is the fifth month in a row that the petrol price has risen.

The per litre price of diesel with 0.05% and 0.005% sulphur content will increase by 60.30c and 57.30c respectively.

The department said in a statement that, in line with the application of the Regulatory Accounts System, the minister has approved a net increase of 3.9c/l in the annual margin adjustments on petrol and a net decrease of 0.7c per litre on diesel and illuminating paraffin wholesale prices. This is effective from Wednesday, 6 December.


The price of illuminating paraffin - wholesale and Single Maximum National Retail price - will go up by 73.30c and 98c a litre respectively.

The maximum retail price for LP Gas will cost 204c more per kilogram.

The department said the average international product prices of petrol, diesel and illuminating paraffin increased during the period under review.

At the same time the rand depreciated against the US dollar, with the average ZAR/USD exchange rate for the period 27 October to 30 November 2017 weakening to R14.0964/$, compared with R13.6210 to the greenback in the previous comparable period.

"This led to a higher contribution to the Basic Fuels Price on petrol, diesel and illuminating paraffin by 23.15c/l, 23.03c/l and 23.34c/l respectively."

On Monday afternoon, Brent Crude was trading at $63.19 per barrel. The price of a barrel has increased by some 30% in dollar terms from six months ago, when it was trading at $48.25.



The rand, meanwhile, is currently trading at R13.62/$.