Turkish fuel prices rise for 3 days after OPEC+ oil production cut decision

Fuel prices in Türkiye have risen for three days in a row as of Friday, with the median prices of diesel oil in Turkish cities, for instance, now as high as 27.20 Turkish liras (1.46 U.S. dollars) per liter.

The consecutive fuel hikes come hard on the heels of the decision made on Wednesday by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and its allies, collectively known as OPEC+, to slash its daily oil production by 2 million barrels beginning November, breaking the downward trend of oil prices in the past several months.

“Announcement by OPEC+ to cut daily production down by 2 million barrels is apparently enough to make fuel prices go higher, even before the production is lowered,” said Alaattin Aktas, an economy journalist, when addressing the issue in his column in Dunya newspaper.

Turkish fuel and energy prices are updated daily by the Turkish energy market regulator according to a wide array of variables including but not limited to the international crude oil prices, the dollar/lira exchange ratio and the tax.

Notably, the current free fall of the Turkish lira against the dollar has greatly contributed to the fuel price rises in Türkiye, an energy-hungry country that imports most of its needs from surrounding countries, as lira has lost more than 100 percent of its value since a year ago.

“We should not forget that we saw prices of about 115 dollars per barrel this year, and if the trend goes that way, there’s nothing we can do about it,” wrote Aktas. The current price of crude oil is about 90 dollars per barrel.