{"id":134400,"date":"2016-08-24T19:15:49","date_gmt":"2016-08-24T17:15:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=134400"},"modified":"2016-08-24T18:53:07","modified_gmt":"2016-08-24T16:53:07","slug":"petrol-vs-diesel-prices-in-south-africa-2006-2016","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/energy\/134400\/petrol-vs-diesel-prices-in-south-africa-2006-2016\/","title":{"rendered":"Petrol vs diesel prices in South Africa: 2006 – 2016"},"content":{"rendered":"

With news around finance minister Pravin Gordhan undoing recent gains made by the rand, hopes for a sizeable drop in the petrol price in September now look unlikely.<\/p>\n

Daily data put out by the Central Energy Fund in the middle of the month showed that motorists could expect yet another substantial drop the fuel price in September.<\/p>\n

However, mid-month estimates of a drop of around 90 cents per litre has been dashed\u00a0by a fresh decline in the value of the rand, which has dropped by almost 5% over the past 24 hours thanks to renewed concerns around the fate of Gordhan.<\/p>\n

Data published by the CEF on Tuesday (23 August) put the likely petrol price drop at around 40 cents per litre, while diesel was expected to drop by 66 cents a litre.\u00a0These values applied at an exchange rate of R13.48 to the dollar.<\/p>\n

With the current exchange rate at R14.12 to the dollar – any expected drop will now be much lower.<\/p>\n

Historically, diesel has mostly been cheaper than petrol in South Africa, though this has not always been the case, and not a trend seen around the world.<\/p>\n

One of the key differences in the pricing of diesel versus petrol, is that diesel prices reflect wholesale prices, not the price you would pay at the pumps.<\/p>\n

The retail price of diesel varies from station to station, depending on the margins applied by each retailer.<\/p>\n

For example, the wholesale inland diesel price for August was at R10.96 at the beginning of the month, while Caltex’s retail version – Caltex 50 diesel with Techron – sells at R11.33 per litre.<\/p>\n

Over the past decade, both the petrol and diesel prices have seen some significant fluctuations, but petrol (95 grade) has seen the biggest overall increase, having jumped 75.4% since 2006.<\/p>\n

The graph and table below show how the prices have changed year-on-year, between August 2006 and August 2016.<\/p>\n

\"Petrol<\/a><\/p>\n

\n
\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Year<\/th>\nUnleaded 93<\/th>\nUnleaded 95<\/th>\nDiesel 0.05%<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n
2006<\/td>\nR6.92<\/td>\nR7.04<\/td>\nR6.54<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
2007<\/td>\nR6.88<\/td>\nR7.01<\/td>\nR6.51<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
2008<\/td>\nR10.20<\/td>\nR10.40<\/td>\nR11.27<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
2009<\/td>\nR7.52<\/td>\nR7.69<\/td>\nR6.65<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
2010<\/td>\nR8.02<\/td>\nR8.17<\/td>\nR7.38<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
2011<\/td>\nR9.91<\/td>\nR10.09<\/td>\nR9.30<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
2012<\/td>\nR10.83<\/td>\nR11.04<\/td>\nR10.25<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
2013<\/td>\nR13.32<\/td>\nR13.55<\/td>\nR12.48<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
2014<\/td>\nR14.08<\/td>\nR14.33<\/td>\nR12.84<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
2015<\/td>\nR13.01<\/td>\nR13.26<\/td>\nR10.94<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
2016<\/td>\nR12.08<\/td>\nR12.35<\/td>\nR10.96<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Source: Department of Energy; Inland prices, August<\/em><\/p>\n

The fuel price is affected by two major components: the global oil price, and the currency exchange rate between the rand and the dollar.<\/p>\n

Between 2014 and 2016, fuel prices (both diesel and petrol) have shown a year-on-year decline, boosted by a much lower global oil price, which has dropped below $50 a barrel, with little hope that it will balloon past that level in the near future.<\/p>\n

However, much of the benefit delivered by lower oil prices has been undone by weakness in the rand – brought about by a struggling economy, poor growth policies and a number of political scandals involving president Jacob Zuma.<\/p>\n

More on fuel<\/h3>\n

Big drop in SA petrol price coming in September<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Massive drop in SA petrol price coming in August \u2013 if you can get it<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

With news around finance minister Pravin Gordhan undoing recent gains made by the rand, hopes for a sizeable drop in the petrol price in September now look unlikely.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":48793,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9874],"tags":[26],"class_list":["post-134400","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-energy","tag-headline"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134400","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=134400"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134400\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":134430,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134400\/revisions\/134430"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/48793"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=134400"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=134400"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=134400"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}