The price of petrol, kerosene, and diesel is set to increase starting on Friday, March 18, as approved by the Tonga Competent Authority.

The wholesale price for petrol, kerosene and diesel will increase by 23.18 seniti/litre, 19.36 seniti/litre and 21.36 seniti/litre respectively. All price changes include consumption tax.

On Tongatapu, consumers will start paying $3.51 per litre for petrol, $2.56 per litre for kerosene and $3.46 per litre for petrol.

The Competent Authority said that crude oil prices continued to rise as both supply and demand fundamentals pressured prices.

Headline crude prices have breached the USD 90/bbl threshold in the first week of February and continued with upward pressure. On a month average, the Dated Brent Crude price for February wad USD 94.10/bbl (up by 10% on the January average).

Countries across the world had put in place a range of sanctions on Russia, the second largest exporter of crude oil.

While crude oil prices surged, product prices rose more than crude.

Regional petrol prices had followed crude higher supported by strong and tightening supply. 

Diesel prices have risen with expectations of exports out of the region. Jet prices have risen as some countries announce plans / time frames for reopening borders, despite the widespread Omicron variant.

The increase in Platts product prices (increase in international price), freight rate has also increased slightly and Tongan Pa’anga has been steady.

Those factors combined resulted in a significant increase in local retail prices for all products.