Fuel prices up

Unleaded petrol increased by one cent to €1.52 per litre on Monday, Enmalta has said.

Diesel and kerosene increased €1.40 per litre. The gasoil for heating price will rise to €1.07.

The corporation said the 'Maximum Retail Price' reflects the prices fetched by Enemalta for the latest shipments of imported fuel. The revised fuel prices are also inclusive of the 0.02 cents increase in Excise Duty announced in the 2013 Budget. TFO prices will not be published for the month of December since this is not currently sold to consumers.

The latest diesel consignment was based on October Platts prices. There were no unleaded consignments during the month of November -- the €0.01c decrease (calculated prior to the announced increase in excise duty) reflects the recorded movements in stock levels. 

During the month of November, ICE Brent crude prices marginally fell by 1.8% over October prices (see Figure 1). Over the past six weeks Brent crude oil movements were mostly directionless, and prices generally traded between a range of $108/bbl to $111/bbl at some point on every trading day.

According to Barclays Capital, this long period of sideways trading can been largely explained by the market being caught between macroeconomic fears and sovereign debt concerns on the one hand and geopolitical concerns and tight prompt markets on the other hand. The oil market is expected to keep on moving through the present directionless phase, staying close to $111 per barrel, until one of the above mentioned forces comes back into focus.

According to the latest Oil Prices Bulletin published by the European Commission, as at 26 November 2012, petrol and diesel prices in Malta ranked 15^th and 9^th respectively out of the other 27 European Countries.  As presented in Table 1 below, the report also shows that consumer petrol and diesel prices in Malta are below the EU weighted averages of EUR 1.599/ltr and EUR 1.490/ltr respectively.  The published prices are inclusive of duties and taxes.

During the month of November 2012, the euro currency fell against the US dollar to an average level of $1.2820 compared to the October average rate of $1.2974.  Towards the end of November the Euro climbed to a new monthly high of $1.3026 as ECB President Mario Draghi announced that all the required efforts will be made to save the single currency.  However some FX analysts are expecting that this short-term rally in the EUR/USD could deteriorate if the rate fails to close above the 1.3000 figure.