The Chamber of Petroleum Consumer (COPEC) is predicting a 2.01% increase in the price of petrol at the retail pumps from April 16, 2023.

According to COPEC, its forecast is based on the increase in international benchmark pricing from $772.75 per metric tonne to $900.20 per metric tonne, indicating a 16.49% rise.

By this, the retail price of petrol works up to ¢12.41 per liter.

"Price of petrol at the retail pumps are therefore expected to increase by an average of 2.01% from the current mean value of ¢12.16 per liter” a statement from COPEC explained.

It explained that by this, petrol is expected to be sold between ¢11.79 liter and ¢13.03 per liter.

Diesel prices

On the other hand, the price of diesel are expected to drop by 5.58%.

This will be a decrease from the current value of ¢12.71 per liter to between ¢11.40 and ¢12.60 per liter.

LPG prices

COPEC pointed out that the international price of LPG has slightly increased from $530.10 per metric tonne to $535.45 per metric tonne, representing 1.01%.

“Taking into cognisance a decline in the forex rate for the period, the projected retail price of LPG will be expected to decrease by about -4.74% from the current industry retail average of ¢12.04 per kilogramme  to ¢11.47 per kilogramme due to the drop in the dollar rate”.

By this, LPG is expected to be sold between ¢10.90 per kilogramme and ¢12.04 per kilogramme.

“Knowing that, LPG consumption generally dropped by 12% in 2022, we entreat the government to do consider easing on the numerous taxes on LPG or to even consider a subsidy programme on the price of LPG with the view to promoting and increasing its usage and to eventually help save the environment”.

Rationale for prediction

According to COPEC, crude pricing has seen an increase from the previous mean price of $74.73 per barrel to $81.69 per barrel, representing 9.31%.

The forex market has also recorded a decline in depreciation from an earlier average of ¢12.5867 to ¢11.5450 (8.28%) per $1.

This is in addition to the Chamber of Bulk Oil Distributors’ industry average rates of about $1 to  ¢12.50.

The statement added that “these Predictions are purely demand and supply driven and are completely independent of all such contributions from the G4O programme".