Supervisor Elham AbolFateh
Editor in Chief Mohamed Wadie

Cabinet: Change in Fuel Prices Will Not Exceed 10%


Wed 01 Apr 2020 | 10:02 AM
Taarek Refaat

Cabinet spokesman Nader Saad denied the validity of news circulating on social media platforms concerning fuel prices, stressing that an automatic pricing committee for petroleum products would issue a new price, in which a change up or down would not exceed 10%.

Sources in the petroleum sector added that the pricing committee is still working on studying the data available concerning the cost of production, the prices of Brent crude and exchange rates over the past three months and no official decision has been issued yet.

The sources pointed out that the determination of the price of the butane cylinder is not subject to the price equation such as petroleum products from gasoline, diesel, as the state continue to subsidize butane cylinder.

The cabinet has revealed earlier that the new prices for petroleum products will be announced during the first week of April for the next 3 months.

Sources suggest that the committee’s direction will include a reduction in the prices of petroleum products by 10% , as a result of the continuous decline in the prices of Brent crude, and as the pace of decline has increased since March with the spread of coronavirus and the failure of Saudi Arabia and Russia to reach an the agreement to reduce oil supplies.

Meantime, oil prices recorded $20 dollars a barrel on Monday, a drop that has not been witnessed in for 17 years.

The pricing equation is linked to the average price of Brent crude, exchange rates, taxes, customs as well as transportation, storage, and refining fees.

The automatic pricing committee for petroleum products, concerned with reviewing and setting the prices of some petroleum products on a quarterly basis, had decided during its last meeting held after the end of December 2019, to fix the sale price of gasoline products of all three types in the local market at EGP 6.50 per liter for 80-Octane Fuel, , EGP 6.75 for diesel, EGP 7.75 for 92-Octane and EGP 8.75 per liter for 95-Octane Fuel.

The pricing mechanism aims to adjust the selling prices of some petroleum products in the domestic market, up and down every quarter, according to the development that takes place for the most important influencing and determining factors.