Nicosia, Cyprus. Fuel prices in Cyprus are expected to rise further in the coming weeks following a recent surge in global oil prices, petrol station owners’ association chairman Savvas Prokopiou said on Monday.
Crude oil price jump cited
Speaking to the Cyprus News Agency (CNA), Prokopiou said crude prices had climbed sharply in recent days, with a barrel rising from around $93 on Friday night to as high as $117 before easing back to about $107.
Local market already seeing increases
Prokopiou said the rise was beginning to feed through to the local market, with an initial increase of around two cents per litre recorded last week and further increases expected.
“I believe that this week there will be other increases, while for the next two to three weeks we expect gradual increases,” he said. He added that retail fuel prices in Cyprus typically adjust in stages when international oil prices rise, with increases passing through gradually rather than all at once.
Uncertainty during geopolitical tension
Prokopiou said it remained difficult to predict the scale of the increases because market conditions can shift quickly during periods of geopolitical tension.
He said upward pressure on prices had initially emerged amid fears of a possible conflict before intensifying further, noting that last Friday alone crude oil rose by around $10 a barrel in a single day.
Impact of weekend attacks and outlook
Following the weekend’s attacks on oil wells and storage tanks, he said crude prices recorded another sharp increase.
Asked whether the increases expected this week would be greater than those seen last week, Prokopiou said that, based on experience, they probably would.
Other authorities monitoring developments
Prokopiou said fuel importing companies and the consumer protection service at the energy ministry had a clearer picture of how the market was evolving.
Comparison with 2022 price movements
He said similar patterns had been seen in 2022, when the outbreak of war between Russia and Ukraine drove energy prices sharply higher.
How do changes in global oil prices affect the price you pay at the pump in Cyprus?
