UAE slashes petrol prices again – now down 21% since deregulation

The UAE has once again, for the seventh month in a row, slashed the monthly price of petrol while the price of diesel inched up in response to global crude price movements.

The latest decrease brings the total petrol price decline in the UAE since the beginning of fuel price deregulation to 20.9 per cent for the most popular Special (95 octane) grade of petrol.

Special 95 will be priced at Dh1.36 per litre for the month of March 2016, down 7.48 per cent from Dh1.47 per litre in February.

The price of a litre of Special stood at Dh1.72 until July 31, 2015, before the UAE deregulated retail fuel prices.

In August 2015, the price of Special petrol shot up 24.4 per cent to Dh2.14 per litre, but successive declines over the next seven months have now brought the price down to Dh1.36 per litre.

Super (98 octane) grade of petrol will now be sold at Dh1.47 per litre, down 6.9 per cent from Dh1.58 per litre in February. Overall, Super has fallen 19.6 per cent from the July 2015, pre-deregulation price of Dh1.83 per litre.  

E plus (91 octane), on the other hand will be available for Dh1.29 per litre in March, down 7.8 per cent from Dh1.40 per litre in February 2016. Overall, E Plus is down 19.87 per cent from the July 2015, pre-deregulation price of Dh1.61 per litre.  

Diesel prices for March went up by 2.2 per cent to Dh1.40 per litre from the February price of Dh1.37 per litre. Nevertheless, diesel prices have more than halved since deregulation, falling 51.7 per cent from the Dh2.9 per litre in July 2015.

As Emirates 24|7 reported last month, petrol prices in the UAE are now officially cheaper than a 1.5-litre bottle of water – or a 355ml can of Coke or Pepsi (or any fizzy drink, for that matter) or even a 250ml bottle of flavoured milk.

Read: UAE petrol now officially cheaper than water, Coke can, but... 

The UAE fuel prices are based on the average global crude prices during the previous month, with the addition of operating costs and profit margins of the distributing companies.

March’s prices, for instance, are based on the average global prices for diesel and petrol during the month of February, when prices remained near 10-year-lows.

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