UAE may further raise fuel prices: newspaper

Fuel prices in the Unite Arab Emirates (UAE) may rise further as oil companies push the government to liberalize the tightly-controlled market, a Dubai- based English daily reported Monday.

The price of petrol will rise 15 percent from 1.53 dirhams ( about 0.42 U.S. dollar) per liter to 1.76 dirhams per liter and the price of diesel 20 percent from 1.25 dirhams per liter next month, Gulf News quoted sources at an oil company as saying.

According to the report, the "regular" and "special" petrol grades are set to rise by 0.23 dirham per liter, while the "super" grade will rise by 0.15 dirham per liter.

Diesel prices, meanwhile, will climb 0.25 dirham per liter and prices will likely to up again in June, Gulf News said.

The hike would make petrol in the UAE, already the most expensive in the Gulf, twice as high as the prices in Saudi Arabia and more than 170 percent higher than the prices in Qatar and Kuwait, the newspaper said.

The news came less than a week after the UAE government, which until now has capped domestic petrol prices, allowed petrol prices to jump 11 percent last Wednesday, their first rise since 2005, amid complaints from oil companies that the money from sales does not cover the cost of production. (1 U.S. dollar = 3.67 dirhams)

Source: Xinhua