Kenyan motorists should brace for high fuel prices as global oil costs continue to climb ahead of the Energy and Petroleum Regulatory Authority’s (EPRA) September 14 review.

🇰🇪 Breaking It Down

This follows the surge in the price of Brent crude, the global benchmark used to price petroleum products, which has climbed back to around Ksh12,900 (USD100).

That is the first time Brent has hit the USD100 mark since July, and it is a sharp jump from the Ksh9,065 (USD70) per barrel level recorded just weeks earlier, up from Ksh3,885.

Kenya imports a huge chunk of its petroleum products from Middle Eastern suppliers; any upward movement in global crude prices is felt directly at the pump.

📌 What You Need to Know

Elsewhere, motoring bodies such as the Royal Automobile Club (RAC) in the United Kingdom have reported similar pain, with unleaded petrol prices there rising by Ksh9 per litre in just one week.

That single increase pushed the price of unleaded to Ksh346, the biggest weekly jump recorded since April, while diesel also rose by Ksh9 to Ksh330.

For Kenyan motorists, such global trends usually point to one thing: higher landing costs for imported fuel, which EPRA factors in when setting monthly pump prices.

As things stand, a litre of Super Petrol in Nairobi retails at Ksh214.03, Diesel goes for Ksh217.86, while Kerosene costs Ksh191.38. These prices could soon shift, though, because the cost of crude oil on international markets has been rising rapidly in recent weeks.

Should the upward trend hold until September 14, Kenyans could see another increase in the cost of Super Petrol, Diesel, and Kerosene, squeezing already stretched household budgets.

This comes despite measures taken by the government to cushion Kenyans from rising fuel costs, including cutting VAT on petroleum products from 16 per cent to 8 per cent .

📰 Source: Kenyans.co.ke