UAE announces lower petrol prices for December

Prices are down 5 per cent across the board.

Motorists will pay less for petrol in December. Christopher Pike / The National

Petrol prices will fall in December by more than 5 per cent for all grades of the fuel.

The Ministry of Energy announced on Wednesday that motorists will pay Dh1.80 a litre for Super 98, down by 5.3 per cent from November; Special 95 will cost Dh1.69, down 5.6 per cent, and E Plus will cost Dh1.62, down 5.8 per cent. Diesel will cost Dh1.81, down 5.2 per cent.

For November, Super 98 had been priced at Dh1.90 a litre, Special 95 at Dh1.79 and E Plus was Dh1.72. Diesel cost Dh1.91.

Brent crude was trading on Wednesday at US$46.84 a barrel. That brought the commodity’s month-to-date loss to 3.0 per cent and its year-to-date gain to 25.7 per cent.

Motorists have witnessed fluctuating prices at the pump since January.

At the start of the year Super 98 was priced at Dh1.69 per litre, Special 95 at Dh1.58 and E Plus at Dh1.51. The prices continued to fall in February and March, when the year’s lowest prices were recorded.

In March, a litre of Super 98 cost Dh1.47, Special 95 Dh1.36 and E Plus Dh1.29.

Fuel prices are set by a Ministry of Energy-led committee using “benchmark prices”, which they have not yet disclosed to the public.

However, their price changes seem to be tracking fairly closely those for wholesale diesel and petrol shipments from Singapore refineries bound for Arabian Gulf destinations, as set by Platts, a widely used oil market pricing agency.

Follow The National’s Business section on Twitter