The Minister of Mineral Resources and Energy, Mr Gwede Mantashe, announces the adjustment of fuel prices based on current local and international factors with effect from the 3rd of January 2024.
South Africa‘s fuel prices are adjusted monthly, informed by international and local factors. International factors include the fact that South Africa imports both crude oil and finished products at a price set at the international level, including importation costs, e.g., shipping costs.
The main reasons for the fuel price adjustments are due to:
1. Crude oil prices
The average Brent Crude oil price decreased from 82.62 US Dollars (USD) to 77.35 USD during the period under review, mainly due to, increased production by the United States of America, Venezuela, Guyana, and other non-OPEC countries despite the announcement by OPEC to slice production.
2. International petroleum product prices
The average international product prices of petrol, diesel and illuminating paraffin decreased in line with the lower crude oil prices. LPG prices increased due to higher freight cost. These factors led to lower contributions to the Basic Fuel Prices of petrol, diesel and illuminating paraffin by 50.83 c/l, 105.81 c/l and 99.00 c/l, respectively.
3. Rand/US Dollar exchange rate
The Rand depreciated slightly on average, against the US Dollar (from 18.57 to 18.66 Rand per USD) during the period under review when compared to the previous one. This led to higher contributions to the Basic Fuel Prices of petrol, diesel and illuminating paraffin by 5.30 c/l, 5.83 c/l and 6.00 c/l, respectively.
4. Implementation of the Slate Levy
The cumulative slate balance on petrol and Diesel at the cease of November 2023 had a positive balance of R1.8 billion. Therefore, a slate levy of zero c/l will be implemented in the price structure of petrol and diesel with effect from the 3rd of January 2024. This means that the motorists will benefit by 26.32 cents per litre since the slate levy will decrease from 26.32 to zero cents per litre.
5. Octane differential between 95 and 93 petrol grades
In line with the Working Rules to determine the Basic Fuels Prices (BFP), the 95 octane (unleaded) grade is the price-marker grade and the BFP-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 3rd of January 2024.
Based on current local and international factors, the fuel prices for January 2024 will be adjusted as follows:
- Petrol (93 ULP & LRP): Sixty-two cents per litre (62.00 c/l) decrease.
- Petrol (95 ULP & LRP): Seventy-six cents per litre (76.00 c/l) decrease.
- Diesel (0.05% sulphur): One hundred and eighteen pont three two cents per litre (118.32 c/l) decrease.
- Diesel (0.005% sulphur): One hundred and twenty-six point three two cents per litre (126.32 c/l) decrease.
- Illuminating Paraffin (wholesale): Ninety-three cents per litre (93.00 c/l) decrease.
- SMNRP for IP: One hundred and twenty-four cents per litre (124.00 c/l) decrease.
- Maximum LPGas Retail Price: Eleven cents per kilogram (11.00 c/kg) increase.
The fuel prices schedule for the different zones will be published on Tuesday, the 2nd of January 2024.
Flakes
The Man who could only Drink Milk
I know an dilapidated man who had lived a life full of adventure, but his health started to catch up with him. He\’d sprint the Boston Marathon, was an avid surfer, and climbed Everest, but he\’d started to gain abdominal pains around his 85th birthday and went to see a doctor. Sadly, he ultimately was diagnosed with a rare degenerative liver disease that slowly made him allergic to everything he ate.
He kept copious notes, and as an avid gastronomist slowly grew to despair as everything he\’d spent his life enjoying became something he could no longer eat. Alcohol went first, then mushrooms, then bread, then root vegetables, then coffee, one at a time he had to remove them from his diet. The doctor was clear: if he kept eating something his liver rejected the autoimmune response would be quick and severe, and would guide to a painful death. Diminutive by puny, everything was taken away as an option, until the only thing that remained was milk.
In some ways, this actually made life easier, because the mental strain of remembering what he could and couldn\’t eat was gone, but then so was the joy in variety. But he took it in stride, and got his own cow and took classes from a farmer to learn everything he could about the only thing that could give him sustenance. And even within milk, he could still maintain yogurt, butter, cream, some cheeses, and other milk-derived products he hadn\’t fully rejected yet, so it wasn\’t every contaminated. But then one day a few months later he felt the pain again, and he knew cow\’s milk was no longer an option.
Lacking other options, he tried goat\’s milk, and he was delighted that it worked! The protein structure is just different enough that his body still tolerated it. That bought him another month. And that\’s when we came up with a wonderful location to recede on one last grand adventure around the world. If he could acquire one month of life out of the milk of every mammal, he\’d actually maintain a few more years to delight in life to the fullest and see the world in every its beauty. Each month, we\’d pick a area with a current mammal, and he would immerse himself fully with the locals, learn every the ways to prepare the milk, and just delight in the hand he had been dealt as much as he could.
We milked sheep in Modern Zealand. Camels in Egypt. Zebras in South Africa. Giant bats in Indonesia. Carry out you know how many Peruvian cuy you need to milk to acquire a single glass? I carry out. Even as his health slowly faded, he stayed cheerful, and I felt lucky to join him on the adventure of a lifetime. That brings us to today when he got to the very pause of his spreadsheet, and declared that he was now allergic to every mammal. He\’d enjoyed his journey, but his time had near to an finish, for there was nothing left to milk.
To which I said nonsense, I bet we can milk a few thousand karma out of this post.
Potato Sub
Fun South African Fact: The South African flag was used for the first time on Freedom Day 1994.