We’re all still celebrating the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy’s (DMRE) recent petrol price adjustments for January, but if the Central Energy Fund’s (CEF) latest batch of predictions come true, we’ll be celebrating well into February, too. It’s still early days, but motorists may have a R1+ decrease to look forward to.
February’s petrol prices can’t come quickly enough
As ever, we should note that the CEF’s figures below (captured 8 January) are not final and are subject to change. It, in conjunction with the DMRE, tracks those economic factors that influence the price of fuel locally, such as the average Rand/US Dollar exchange rate and the price of oil products internationally.
Using this, it offers South Africans accurate insight into the coming fuel price adjustments, which are typically altered on the first Wednesday of any given month. In this case, motorists have new fuel prices at the pumps from the morning of Wednesday, 4 February 2026.
Thanks to an increasingly strong Rand throughout December and January — as well as falling oil prices (hovering around $58 a barrel in the early days of January) — the CEF has predicted major R1+ price decreases for petrol and diesel drivers alike. It’s rare to see similarly major price decreases two months in a row.
Here are the petrol and diesel price predictions (so far) for February 2026:
- Petrol 93: decrease of 109 cents per litre (R1.09)
- Petrol 95: decrease of 115 cents per litre (R1.15)
- Diesel 0.05%: decrease of 149 cents per litre (R1.49)
- Diesel 0.005%: decrease of 163 cents per litre (R1.63)
- Illuminating Paraffin: decrease of 128 cents per litre (R1.28)
