MaltaMedia.com

Enemalta has announced that, as from Monday, the price of unleaded petrol has gone up 6 cents, while that of diesel and kerosene has gone up by 3 cents.

The latest geopolitical tensions, including the west’s standoff with IRAN over its nuclear programme and fears of supply of disruptions elsewhere meant a rather steep and fast increase in the price of oil in the first quarter of the year. In fact Brent prices in the first quarter of this year averaged at $118 a barrel compared to $ 105 a barrel recorded during the same quarter of last year.

During the month of March, ICE Brent crude prices spiked to a four-year high of $ 128 a barrel after fears over disruptions of supply from Saudi Arabia, reaching levels not seen since July 2008 when the financial and economic crisis drove oil to record highs of more than $ 147 a barrel. This translates itself into a 5% increase over the February 2012 average of $ 119 a barrel and a 12% increase since the beginning of the year

This increase translated itself into an increase in the derivatives of fuel, including that used by motorists. In fact data available published by the European Commission on March 26th show that there was an average increase in the price of fuel for motorists of 6.6%. This varied from an increase in the price of unleaded fuel of 15.3% in Hungary and 2.8% in Malta. The variation in the increase of the price of Diesel varied between 10.8% in Poland and 0.3% in Denmark (in Malta the increase of 1.5%). This confirmed the trend that Malta’s petrol and diesel prices are ranked the 7th and 5th lowest respectively out of the EU27 and below the EU averages of Eur 1.656/ltr and Eur 1.525/ltr.

Against this background and in view of the fact that latest unleaded consignment is based on March Platts prices which were 8% higher than the previous delivery pricing basis (Feb) and in view of the fact that the latest diesel consignment was also based on March Platts averages which on average where 8.3% higher than the previous delivery pricing basis (January), Enemalta announced the above revisions in fuel prices effective 2nd April 2012.