Fuel pump at a local station/FILE
NAIROBI, Kenya, Feb 14 – Local motorists will get some reprieve at the fuel pump this month with a 63 cents decrease for super petrol which will now retail at Sh111.32 per litre, according to the Energy Regulatory Commission’s (ERC) latest fuel price review.
Diesel, however, saw a sizeable drop by Sh2.61 to stand at 105.29 per litre. Kerosene equally decreased significantly by Sh3.37 to Sh83.74 per litre.
The ERC had been reluctant to give its fuel price forecast for the month of February to avoid a repeat of last month’s fuel shortage largely blamed on the regulator’s early predictions.
The energy regulator cited the stabilising local currency against the US dollar as positively impacting domestic fuel prices over the review period.
This was despite an erratic trend in the price of crude and imported refined petroleum products in the international market coupled with volatile performance of key global economies over the last several months.
“The average landed cost of imported super petrol increased by 6.62 percent from US $1002.68 per tonne in December 2011 to US $1069.01 per tonne in January 2012,” ERC Director General Kaburu Mwirichia explained in a statement.
Over the same period, imported diesel decreased by 2.49 percent, while the cost of imported kerosene increased slightly by 0.88 percent.
High fuel prices were one of the twin factors blamed for soaring inflation rates experienced in the country last year.
The fuel import bill rose from an average of 21.6 percent of the total cost of imports in 2010 to peak at 31.1 percent in August 2011.
There has been a steady drop of fuel prices in the last one month following the strengthening of the shilling against the major international currencies with the price of super petrol decreasing by Sh7.11 per litre and diesel down by Sh3.08 per litre in January.
The new fuel pricing is set to take effect from February 15 through to March 14.
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