The Seychelles Petroleum Company (SEYPEC) has increased fuel prices in response to what its suppliers are charging, said a top official on Thursday.

As of this week, motorists in Seychelles are paying SCR 23.48 ($1.63) per litre, which is SCR1.36 more than last week.

The interim chief executive of SEYPEC, Sarah Romain, told SNA that several factors are responsible for the increase in fuel prices, including the global uncertainty being caused by the conflict between Russia and Ukraine.

Romain said that the increase is a "normal thing that is happening all over the world. Other European countries rely heavily on fuel from Russia, but since the tensions began earlier this year there is a perceived scarcity of oil products."

As a result, everyone is "scrambling to secure their stocks and this is causing an increase in global prices," she added.

This in turn has led to oil being in great demand as the members of the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) are not producing enough to bridge the gap created now that the Russian products are no longer available due to sanctions against the country.

The last time Seychelles, an archipelago in the western Indian Ocean, had a substantial increase in fuel prices was in 2008 when it undertook an IMF-backed macro-economic reform programme.

The lowest people have paid for fuel in Seychelles since the onset of the pandemic was SCR 14 ($0.98) per litre in May 2020.

With a cost of SCR 23.48 ($1.63), Seychelles is the country with the highest fuel price in the Indian Ocean at the moment, second only to Reunion and Mayotte – both of which are French territories. Mauritius is charging SCR 20 ($1.39).

Romain said that SEYPEC is monitoring the current changes in oil prices internationally and there is a possibility that the prices will go down.

"The prices at which we buy the cargo is about two to three weeks back and with the uncertainty on the market at the moment, SEYPEC cannot make any forecast," she added.

She said that SEYPEC does not have the product here locally and "we have to rely on other countries, which makes it difficult for us to have any control on these things."