Epra leaves pump prices unchanged, slashes subsidy

Business
By Macharia Kamau | May 14, 2025
A PSV vehicle being fueled at a petrol station along Kenyatta Avenue in Nairobi. [Wilberforce Okwiri, Standard]

The Energy and Petroleum Regulatory Authority (Epra) has retained fuel prices at the same level for the second month in a row.

This will mean the retail price of super petrol will remain at Sh174.63 per litre in Nairobi. Diesel will continue retailing at Sh164.86 per litre while kerosene will retail at Sh148.99 per litre.

"In the period under review, the maximum allowed petroleum pump prices for super petrol, diesel and kerosene remain unchanged," said Epra in its monthly capping price guide on Wednesday.

The cost of fuel has generally been reducing over the last year, with the cost of petrol going down from above Sh200 seen at the start of last year to the current levels.

This resulted in a growth in consumption in 2024, reversing a declining trend witnessed since 2021 as households and businesses grappled with a tough economic environment in recent years, which saw changes in transport and production patterns.

Demand for petroleum products grew two per cent last year, according to the Economic Survey 2025 published last week, to 5.2 million tonnes.

The reduction in pump prices has been on account of different factors including an economy that appears to be on the mend but also decline in global oil prices as well as instances of government intervention through subsidsing retail prices.

While Epra yesterday said that landed costs had dropped by between three per cent and 6.6 per cent in April compared to March, it also reduced the amount of money spent on stabilising pump prices.

In the April-May cycle, it subsidised the cost of super petrol by Sh4.66 per litre and that of diesel by Sh6 but this has dropped to Sh2.20 per litre of petrol and 28 cents for diesel over the May-June cycle.

"The average landed cost of imported super petrol decreased by 2.95 per cent... diesel decreased by 6.62 per cent... while kerosene decreased by 4.52 per cent," said Epra.

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