July's expected petrol prices are in: new data brings good tidings

Now that we’re in the back end of June, it’s time to turn our attention to how the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy will be fiddling with the country’s fuel pumps shortly. After a rare win for petrol drivers at the beginning of June that saw a whole R1 knocked off the price, the Central Energy Fund’s (CEF) latest predictions (captured 20 June) promise a repeat this July.

Diesel drivers on the other hand… Look. It’s not quite matching the price cuts you guys have become used to in recent months, but it’ll be better than nothing. Should the CEF’s predictions hold until the first Wednesday of the new month (that’s when the Department adjusts fuel prices) it’ll bring the overall price down to the R20/l range, just falling short of hitting the R19/l mark. Next time, huh?

Petrolheads, unite!

For that to happen, it requires the country to keep it together, economically speaking, until Wednesday, 3 July. While the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy are technically in charge of adjusting the country’s fuel prices, it makes its decision based on several economic factors throughout the month.

That’s what the CEF is there for. Being a state-owned energy company, the CEF reports directly to the Department and keeps a watch on those ever-changing influencers such as the price of refined oil globally and the current Rand/US Dollar exchange daily.

As we saw in the second week of June, for instance, the CEF was hopeful of an even larger cut to all grades of petrol and diesel thanks to the cheaper price of Brent Crude oil at the beginning of the month. Thanks to an average price increase in Brent Crude since then, the CEF’s predictions have been adjusted accordingly, pointing towards an all-round lower decrease than first expected.