Price of petrol to rise in new year

Petrol and diesel prices will rise next month by 6.1 to 7.1 per cent for all grades of fuel.

Motorists will pay Dh1.91 a litre for Super 98, up 6.1 per cent from December. Special 95 will cost Dh1.80, up 6.5 per cent, and E Plus Dh1.73, up 6.7 per cent. Diesel will cost Dh1.94, up 7.1 per cent. This month, Super 98 was priced at Dh1.80 a litre, Special 95 at Dh1.69 and E Plus was Dh1.62. Diesel cost Dh1.81.

The price of fuel at the pump is linked to the price of oil. Brent Crude was trading yesterday at $56.44 a barrel, an increase of 4.6 per cent this month and 51.6 per cent for the year.

Fuel prices have fluctuated at the pump since January, when Super 98 was Dh1.69 per litre, Special 95 Dh1.58 and E Plus Dh1.51. Diesel was Dh1.61.

Petrol prices continued to fall in February and March, when the year’s lowest prices were recorded. Diesel fell in February before rising slightly in March.

In March, a litre of Super 98 cost Dh1.47, Special 95 Dh1.36 and E Plus Dh1.29. Diesel was Dh1.40. Fuel prices are set by a Ministry of Energy-led committee using “benchmark prices”. These have not been disclosed.

But their price changes seem to be tracking fairly closely those for wholesale diesel and petrol shipments from Singapore refineries bound for Arabian Gulf destinations, as set by Platts, a widely used oil market pricing agency.