Official petrol price decreases for May announced

The Department of Mineral and Petroleum Resources has confirmed that motorists will enjoy reduced fuel prices from 7 May onwards.

Petrol prices are being cut by 22c per litre across the board, while diesel is seeing a minimum 41c per litre drop.

These changes are courtesy of lower international oil prices for the month of April, which was slightly offset by a depreciating rand.

Petrol price joy

On 28 March, Brent Crude oil traded around $73.63 per barrel, rising to a high of $74.95 per barrel by 2 April.

It fell to a monthly low of $62.82 per barrel on 8 April and saw choppy price action until 1 May, where it settled at $62.13.

The lower average prices were due to reduced demand for oil as tariffs and global conflict continue to raise fears of a global recession, combined with a shock production increase announced by the OPEC+ cartel.

The improvement in oil rates led to an over-recovery in local fuel prices of 51c per litre for diesel and 71c per litre for petrol.

Meanwhile, the rand depreciated against the US dollar under review owing to the new tariffs announced by the United States in April which was exacerbated by newfound instability in the Government of National Unity.

The average Rand/US Dollar exchange rate from 28 March 2025 to 1 May 2025 was R18.8382/dollar, compared to R18.2957/dollar during the previous period.

This led to an under-recovery in local petrol and diesel costs of 29.13c/l and 30.34c/l, respectively.

In line with the provisions of the self-adjusting Slate Levy mechanism, the Slate Levy on petrol and diesel will remain at 0.00c/l with effect from 07 May 2025.

With these inputs accounted for, fuel prices in South Africa this May will be adjusted as follows:

• Petrol 93 – Decrease of 22c a litre
• Petrol 95 – Decrease of 22c a litre
• Diesel 0.05% – Decrease of 42c a litre
• Diesel 0.005% – Decrease of 41c a litre

The table below indicates how the official fuel price adjustments for May will reflect at the pump: