MaltaMedia.com

Enemalta has reported that the price of petrol has gone down 3 cents. Other fuels remain at the same price.The latest unleaded consignment was based on December Platts prices. The previous unleaded consignment was based on October prices which on average were 5.9% lower than December’s prices. This factor mainly contributed to a €0.03 cents reduction in petrol prices. There was no diesel consignment during the month of December and together with the recorded stock level movements, this brought about stability in the diesel price. During 2012 the local diesel market experienced a volatile uptake by competition oscillating between 20% and 40% of the Diesel market share. During the month of December, ICE Brent crude prices marginally fell by less than 1% over November prices (see Figure 1). Over the past days crude oil markets edged up with the front month Brent contract climbing above $111 a barrel as U.S. lawmakers launched a last-chance round of budget talks to prevent the world’s largest oil consumer from slipping back into recession. Oil also rose as Japan, the world’s third largest consumer of the commodity, sped up efforts to turn around its economy.