Here is the official petrol price for May – and it’s bad news for diesel

The Department of Energy has published the fuel price adjustments for May 2022, showing a slight decline for petrol, while diesel vehicle owners in South Africa are not so lucky.

The fuel price adjustments take into account the emergency interventions announced by National Treasury in cooperation with the energy department whereby the General Fuel Levy will be reduced by R1.50 until 31 May 2022.

The new prices take effect on Wednesday, 4 May 2022.

Taking these factors into consideration, the changes for May are as follows:

According to the department, the main drivers behind the price changes include the rand/dollar exchange rate as well as fluctuating oil prices. No slate levy changes were made for the month.

The average brent crude oil price decreased from $109.37 to $104.78 during the period under review. The main cause behind the lower price includes Covid-19 restrictions in China, which is a huge importer of crude oil. This has led to reduced demand for crude oil.

Furthermore, the US announced the release of crude oil strategic stocks to curb crude oil price increases. The impact of these two factors was not that significant as the average price of crude oil only decreased slightly during the period under review and is still high, the department said.

The Russian invasion of Ukraine also remains a significant contributing factor, it said.

Looking at currencies, the rand appreciated, on average, against the US dollar (from R15.02 to R14.90 per USD) during the period under review when compared to the previous one. This led to lower contributions to the Basic Fuel Prices of petrol, diesel and illuminating paraffin by 10.18 c/l, 11.96 c/l and 11.57 cents per litre, respectively.

Different price changes

An important note is that price changes in May will differ across all magisterial district zones due to the different transport tariff increases and decreases that will be implemented in the month.

The department said it has approved the implementation of revised zone differentials into the price structures of petrol, diesel and illuminating paraffin with effect from 4 May 2022.

The annual adjustments to road transport tariffs will range from a decrease of 33.4 c/l in Gordonia South Magisterial District Pricing Zone to an increase of 3.0 c/l (Zone 9C-Gauteng), it said.

“The primary transport tariffs applicable to the transport of petrol and diesel mainly by means of the pipeline network will increase. Because of the different transport tariff adjustments to be effective on 4 May 2022, price changes to similar products will differ in the 54 Magisterial District Pricing Zones,” it said.

The fuel prices for the different zones were published on Tuesday (3 May), the department said.

This is how the price changes will generally reflect at the pumps: