By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
Department of Petroleum and Mineral Resources has published the official fuel price adjustments that will take effect on Wednesday, 1 October 2025.
The petrol price will increase with one cent per litre for 93 Unleaded and eight cents for 95 Unleaded.
Diesel will see modest decreases of 10 cents for 500ppm and eight cents for 50ppm, Illuminated paraffin will see an 11 cent decrease.
Following the adjustments, the price of 95 Unleaded petrol will rise to R20.84 at the coast and R21.63 in Gauteng, with 93 Unleaded increasing to R21.48. The wholesale price of 50ppm diesel should fall to R18.63 at the coast and R19.39 inland.
September saw oil prices trade in a relatively tight range around $67 a barrel, with a spike in prices to $69 a barrel in the last week of the month.
The rand, meanwhile, continued to show resilience, strengthening to around R17.30/$ for most of the month, and ending the last week on the front foot at even stronger levels.
Thanks to support from a stronger rand, fuel price recoveries managed to pull back from an under-recovery at the start of the month to a small over-recovery by month-end.
However, factoring in wage increases for forecourt employees into the mix, this has pushed prices back into the red for petrol and undercut the price decrease for diesel.
The average Brent Crude oil price increased slightly from $67.01 to $67.16 during the period under review.
The increase in the price of crude oil is due to the geopolitical risks emanating from the Russia & Ukraine conflict as well as the Middle East conflict.
The impact of the geopolitical risks outweighs the OPEC+ recent announcement to increase production in October, which could ultimately lead to increased supply and lower prices.
The average international petroleum prices followed the increasing trend of crude oil prices.
This led to higher contributions to the Basic Fuel Prices (BFP) of petrol by 16.93 cents per litre (c/l), diesel by 8.13 c/l and illuminating paraffin by 4.23 c/l.
The prices of Propane and Butane remained the same as during the previous period, however the shipping costs were lower.
The Rand appreciated on average, against the US Dollar from $17.73 to $17.49 per USD during the period under review when compared to the previous one.