EPRA Explains Why Fuel Prices Dropped By Ksh1

The Energy Petroleum and Regulatory Authority (EPRA) has attributed the drop in fuel prices by Ksh1 to three factors in the market.

While announcing new fuel prices on November 15, the authority indicated that there was a drop in the landing cost of the fuel in the month of October.

EPRA noted that the landing cost for super petrol dropped by 5.6 per cent from Ksh88,302 per cubic metre to Ksh83,355 per cubic metre.

File photo of KPC Pipeline

FILE

KENYA PIPELINE

"Diesel decreased by 2.33% from Ksh107,461 per cubic metre to Ksh104,952 per cubic metre while Kerosene decreased by 9.08% from Ksh107,311 per cubic metre to Ksh 97,637 per cubic metre," EPRA explained.

However, EPRA noted that while the landing cost may have dropped, the Kenyan shilling performed poorly as compared to the US dollar in the same period.

This means that the despite the landing cost dropping, goods bought in dollars such as crude oil were still expensive.

"Over the same period, the mean monthly US dollar to Kenya shilling exchange rate depreciated by 0.15% from Kshs.123.88 per US dollar in September 2022 to Kshs.124.06 per US dollar in October 2022," read the statement in part.

Therefore in a bid to cushion Kenyans from the effects of the high pump prices, it introduced subsidies for super petrol unlike for the previous review period.

"The price of Diesel has been cross-subsidized with that of Super Petrol while a subsidy of Kshs.17.68/litre has been maintained for Kerosene in order to cushion consumers from the otherwise high prices.

"The Government will utilise the Petroleum Development Levy (PDL) to compensate oil marketing companies for the difference in cost," EPRA added.

In the new charges, a litre of Super in Nairobi dropped from Ksh178 to Ksh177 while the cost of Diesel dropped from Ksh163 to Ksh161.