October 2025 official fuel prices

The Department of Petroleum and Mineral Resources has published the official fuel price adjustments that will take effect on Wednesday, 1 October 2025.

September saw oil prices trade in a relatively tight range around $67 a barrel, with a spike in prices to $69 a barrel in the last week of the month.

The rand, meanwhile, continued to show resilience, strengthening to around R17.30/$ for most of the month, and ending the last week on the front foot at even stronger levels.

Thanks to support from a stronger rand, fuel price recoveries managed to pull back from an under-recovery at the start of the month to a small over-recovery by month-end.

However, factoring in wage increases for forecourt employees into the mix, this has pushed prices back into the red for petrol and undercut the price decrease for diesel.

This resulted in a 8 to 10 cents per litre cut for diesel and a small 1 to 8 cents per litre hike for petrol prices.

The table below outlines the changes:

The average Brent Crude oil price increased slightly from $67.01 to $67.16 during the period under review.

The increase in the price of crude oil is due to the geopolitical risks emanating from the Russia & Ukraine conflict as well as the Middle East conflict.

The impact of the geopolitical risks outweighs the OPEC+ recent announcement to increase production in October, which could ultimately lead to increased supply and lower prices.

The average international petroleum prices followed the increasing trend of crude oil prices.

This led to higher contributions to the Basic Fuel Prices (BFP) of petrol by 16.93 cents per litre (c/l), diesel by 8.13 c/l and illuminating paraffin by 4.23 c/l.

The prices of Propane and Butane remained the same as during the previous period, however the shipping costs were lower.

The Rand appreciated on average, against the US Dollar from $17.73 to $17.49 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 by 14.27 c/l, diesel by 15.40 c/l and Illuminating paraffin by 14.79 c/l.

The slate levy was unchanged.

However, the Minister of Mineral and Petroleum Resources has approved a 6.1 c/l increase (from 299.5c/l to 305.6c/l), in the price structures of petrol to accommodate the wage increase for Forecourt employees.

This is in line with the Motor Industry Bargaining Council (MIBCO) multi-year Wage Settlement Agreement signed on the 23rd of August 2025.

This increase will be implemented from the 1st of October 2025.

In line with the Working Rules to determine the Basic Fuels Prices (BFP), the differential between 95 and 93 octanes is adjusted on the first Wednesday of each quarter.

The BFP Octane differential has changed during the previous quarter and therefore the retail prices of 95 and 93 petrol octanes will be different in each fuel-pricing zone with effect from the 1st of October 2025.

This is how the price changes will reflect at the pumps (Diesel prices reflect wholesale, pump prices will differ):