ABU DHABI — Abu Dhabi’s ADNOC Distribution has hiked the diesel price by 25 fils a litre, about 11.90 per cent, with effect from Saturday.
“The price hike was motivated by the losses the company has sustained from selling diesel due to ‘high cost of production,” the company said in a statement, carried by Wam newswire.
However, the Emirates National Oil Company and EPPCO, the two leading oil distribution companies which operate in Dubai and rest of the Northern Emirates, did not revise the diesel price.
This is the second time in four months that ADNOC Distribution has revised the diesel price. On April 21, it increased the price by 21 fils per litre to Dh2.10.
Earlier this week, ADNOC Distribution, ENOC and EPPCO and Emaarat decided to revise the prices of three petroleum products by 20 fils per litre. On Thursday, they charged the revised prices from consumers.
A spokesman for Dubai-based ENOC told Khaleej Times that the oil distribution company has no intention to revise diesel prices.
He said that the Dh2.60 per litre is the proper price for the commodity in line with today’s price levels in international markets.
“We are not making any losses at this price”, another official from the same company said.
An independent economist in Abu Dhabi, Riad Mattar, who runs a private consultancy, was not surprised by ADNOC Distribution’s decision. “It was expected,” he said.But the move, Mattar feared, will give an excuse to traders to raise the prices of consumer items just before the arrival of the holy month of Ramadan.