UAE to announce fuel prices for June; will petrol, diesel rates drop next month?

The UAE is set to announce retail fuel prices for June on Wednesday (May 31) to align them with the global rates.

Petrol prices hit the highest level of 2023 in May after prices were hiked by over five per cent as oil prices jumped due to a surprise cut in output by the oil-producing countries in April.

For the month of May 2023, Super 98 petrol was priced at Dh3.16 a litre, up from Dh3.01 in April; Special 95 petrol price was increased from Dh2.90 to Dh3.05 per litre; and E-Plus raised to Dh2.97 a litre, up from Dh2.82.

Oil-producing group Opec+ will meet again on June 4 and analysts expect a surprise decision by the producers is more likely. They expect that the group can announce output cuts once again, similar to the one announced in April. Globally, oil prices had jumped after the output cut in April.

Since UAE deregulated retail petrol prices in 2015, any fluctuation in global rates is directly adjusted in the local retail prices. in the UAE, prices hit an all-time in July 2022 after the Ukraine-Russian crisis as prices reached Dh4.63 per litre.

Despite local petrol prices hitting this year’s highest level in May, they’re still much cheaper than the global average. In the UAE, the average fuel price is Dh2.9 per litre as compared to the global average of Dh4.71 per litre as of May 22.

• UAE petrol prices increase by 5% as diesel rates fall