Motorists will have to dig deeper into their pockets as all grades of petrol are due to increase next Wednesday.<\/p>\n
In a statement on Thursday, the Department of Energy announced that a litre of petrol 93 ULP and LRP will rise by 50 cents a litre, while a litre of 95 ULP and LRP will increase by 48 cents.<\/p>\n
In December, a litre of 95 ULP cost R12.85 in Gauteng. Motorists in Gauteng will now have to cough up R13.33 for a litre of 95 ULP.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, a litre of Diesel (0.05% Sulphur) and will increase by 39 cents, while Diesel (0.005% Sulphur) will increase by 37 cents.<\/p>\n
The Wholesale price of Illuminating Paraffin will rise by 43 cents and the price of SMNRP of Illuminating Paraffin will increase by 58 cents.<\/p>\n
The Maximum Retail Price of LPGas will see a 106.00c\/kg increase.<\/p>\n
The department said the Rand\/US Dollar exchange rate contributed to the increase of the petrol price.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Rand strengthened very slightly against the US Dollar from R13.91 to R13.87, on average, during the period under review when compared to the previous one.\u201d<\/p>\n
In addition, the key factor that contributed to the increase in the prices of crude oil was the fact that OPEC members agreed to cut production by 1.2 million barrels per from 1 January 2017 during their meeting that was held in Vienna, Austria, on 30 November 2016.<\/p>\n
\u201cFurthermore, Russia and other Non-OPEC producers also agreed to cut production by 600,000 barrels per day,\u201d said the department.<\/p>\n