Petrol price cap to go up in May
Petrol price cap to go up in May
The price cap of retail gasoline in Cambodia will increase for 10 days this month, according to a Ministry of Commerce announcement which cited fluctuations in the international market as the cause.
Issued by the ministry on Sunday, the announcement stated that the price cap for regular gasoline will climb from 4,100 riel to 4,150 riel by May 21. The price of diesel will rise by 100 riel and hit 4,000 riel by then.
In a press conference on Friday, the Ministry of Commerce sought to dispel rumours that the rising price was connected to the upcoming national elections on July 29.
Seang Thai, spokesman at the ministry, explained that the formula devised for petrol pricing relied heavily on international oil prices, especially the rate it is traded at in Singapore.
The Ministry of Commerce recalculates the retail fuel price cap every 10 days.
Despite the fact that the Kingdom currently fills all of its oil needs by importing, Cheap Sour, spokesman for the Ministry of Mines and Energy, was optimistic last week about how the project to drill on one of the country’s offshore blocks could prove beneficial.
“We hope that the gasoline price in the country will be better than it is now, as we will have both a local oil refinery and oil production,” he said, adding that revenues from the oil production would go toward development of Cambodia’s infrastructure as well as its education and health sectors.
KrisEnergy plans to produce oil from Cambodia’s offshore Block A oil deposit next year and plans to invest more than $30 million in the project this year, according to its 2017 annual report.
The Singapore-based energy company secured a petroleum licence for Block A from the Cambodian government in August last year, allowing it to pull oil from the 3,083-square-kilometre plot in the Gulf of Thailand.
The $1.6 billion project was funded and is being constructed primarily by Chinese state-run firms, and it is unclear if either the refinery or Block A’s oil reserves will benefit Cambodia’s domestic petroleum market.
