{"id":871726,"date":"2026-08-24T13:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-08-24T11:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=871726"},"modified":"2026-08-24T13:11:57","modified_gmt":"2026-08-24T11:11:57","slug":"complete-u-turn-for-petrol-prices-in-south-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/energy\/871726\/complete-u-turn-for-petrol-prices-in-south-africa\/","title":{"rendered":"Complete U-turn for petrol prices in South Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Petrol price recoveries have done a complete U-turn and are now back to where they started at the beginning of August.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Petrol price recoveries started the month on the back foot, showing an under-recovery of R1 per litre as the July reignition of the US-Iran war filtered through oil markets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While the conflict flared up and the Strait of Hormuz was shut down, markets held onto some hope as some shipping through the passage continued.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There was also a persistent hope that both the US and Iran would ultimately negotiate a lasting peace in the region.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This was reflected in the global oil price, which swung from $100 per barrel when the war restarted to around $80 per barrel as tensions eased.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This led to a concomitant reduction in the under-recovery in local petrol prices, which, at one point, had halved to around 50 cents per litre. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This sparked hope for recoveries to end neutral for the month, sparing motorists from a hike at the pumps in September.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, hopes faded as, contrary to easing tensions and ending the war, the United States escalated matters last week by threatening to add further sanctions against Iran to the mix.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This sent oil prices back to around $95 a barrel\u2014far higher than the $83 per barrel levels at the start of the month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a result, recoveries have moved in the wrong direction, and any gains made in August have been all but wiped out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The latest data from the Central Energy Fund shows that petrol prices are now at an under-recovery of 99 cents per litre, the same R1 level as at the start of the month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The table below outlines the recoveries at start, mid and month-to-date.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fuel<\/th>Month Start
Recovery<\/th>		Mid Month
Recovery<\/th>		MTD
Recovery<\/th>		MTD Recovery
change<\/th><\/tr><\/thead>
Petrol 93<\/td>(R0.90)<\/td>(R0.63)<\/td>(R0.88)<\/td>-R0.02<\/strong><\/td><\/tr>
Petrol 95<\/td>(R1.01)<\/td>(R0.74)<\/td>(R0.99)<\/td>-R0.02<\/strong><\/td><\/tr>
Diesel 0.05%<\/td>(R4.84)<\/td>(R2.73)<\/td>(R2.89)<\/td>-R1.95<\/td><\/tr>
Diesel 0.005%<\/td>(R4.96)<\/td>(R2.89)<\/td>(R3.10)<\/td>-R1.86<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Petrol 95 price path<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Petrol 93 price path<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

There are at least two saving graces in the data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While diesel prices are still at a steep under-recovery of around R3 per litre, this is a better position than at the start of the month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Diesel recoveries have not followed the same U-turn path as petrol recoveries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The second saving grace is the rand, which is trading stronger against the dollar and sitting extremely close to the R16\/$ resistance level.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The rand was trading below R16\/$ before the US-Iran War and has been fairly resilient since the war’s eruption. A move below R16\/$ would effectively put the unit back in pre-war graces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The stronger rand is currently working against oil price pressures, reducing the under-recovery by around 15 cents per litre.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

United States threatens sanctions<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is expected to announce a fresh set of economic measures against Iran, as Washington pivots from strike threats to tougher sanctions as a way to end the nearly six-month war.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The US is striving to push Iran to accept an end to the war on its terms, having failed to do so with an extensive military campaign. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Iranian economy is already under immense strain, with a US naval blockade severely curtailing crucial oil exports.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Iran\u2019s currency weakened to an all-time low against the dollar, having fallen 4.5% since US President Donald Trump announced last week he was planning to escalate economic pressure on Tehran.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, the move to apply fresh sanctions on Iran may lead to even wider geopolitical disruptions, with China stepping in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

China said that any US sanctions will only worsen tensions with Iran and won\u2019t serve any side\u2019s interests.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The nation, which buys the bulk of Iranian oil, will \u201ctake necessary measures to safeguard its legitimate rights and interests,\u201d Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lin Jian said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With Bloomberg<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Petrol price recoveries have done a complete U-turn and are now back to where they started at the beginning of August.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":856572,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"failed","_sma_x_autopost_error":"Instagram publishing failed: Instagram returned HTTP 400: Media ID is not available","_sma_x_post_id":"2091843218086219887","_sma_facebook_post_id":"191437357620492_2185216392298760","_sma_instagram_post_id":"","_sma_x_attempts":1,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9874],"tags":[2835,2171,10022],"class_list":["post-871726","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-energy","tag-oil","tag-petrol-price","tag-united-states"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/871726","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=871726"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/871726\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":871729,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/871726\/revisions\/871729"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/856572"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=871726"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=871726"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=871726"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}