Fuel prices unchanged The Ministry of Mines and Energy this week announced that it would leave fuel pump prices unchanged for December.Delivering the good news, Minister Kandjoze said: “In the global oil market, November has been a very volatile month. It has been characterised by uncertainties in terms of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) output and relatively lower demand. The prices per barrel of crude and refined petroleum products have been mean-reverting. Crude has been hovering slightly above US$47, while refined oil has been fluctuating around US$58.”
Said Kandjoze: “Expectations were that both prices of crude and refined products would increase owing to the much-talked-about Opec agreement of cutting production outputs to help stabilise prices. That agreement is yet to see the light of day. There is still an over-supply of oil in the market against a very low demand. Opec countries are still holding on to the ''market share'' politics, a situation that will keep prices low for a considerable period of time.”
He concluded: “For a net importer like Namibia, low oil prices naturally translate into low fuel pump prices. However, despite the low oil prices, the exchange rate of the Namibia dollar against the US dollar has increased, thereby making imports expensive. This development offsets the benefits otherwise brought about by low oil prices. The average N$/US$ exchange rate for November was N$13.90, which is slightly higher than the N$13.60 recorded in October.”
Oil held its biggest gain in nine months and crude producers rallied after Opec approved the first supply cuts in eight years, with focus now shifting to how strictly it will implement its bid to ease a record glut, according to FIN24.
Futures added as much as 1.4% in New York and traded above $50 after surging 9.3% on Wednesday, the largest gain since February amid record volumes, it reported.
“Opec agreed to reduce collective production to 32.5 million barrels a day,” Iranian oil minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh said in Vienna on Wednesday. Goldman Sachs Group and Morgan Stanley said prices could rise to $60 a barrel.
STAFF REPORTER