HARARE – Zimbabwe’s fuel prices have fallen sharply from the highs recorded earlier this year, as the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz continues to ease pressure on global oil markets following months of Middle East conflict.

The Zimbabwe Energy Regulatory Authority (ZERA) on Wednesday announced a reduction in petroleum prices effective July 8, with diesel dropping by 12 cents and petrol easing by five cents per litre.

Diesel 50 now retails at US$1.87 per litre, down from US$1.99, while blend is now pegged at US$1.93 per litre, down from US$1.98 under the previous schedule of June 19.

In local currency, diesel is priced at ZWG50.37 per litre and blend at ZWG51.83 per litre.

The reductions mark a steep decline from prices recorded in early April, when diesel peaked at US$2.11 per litre and blend at US$2.23 per litre, among the highest levels in Africa.

At the time, ZERA said cost pressures were being driven by conflict in the Middle East that had pushed the FOB price of diesel up by 33.16 percent and petrol by 5.96 percent since the previous review, forcing the regulator onto a two-week review cycle to avoid shortages and arbitrage.

ZERA said then that without government intervention, including the removal of all taxes and levies on diesel, the price of diesel would have been US$2.65 per litre. Prices had climbed even further from the US$1.52 per litre for diesel and US$1.56 per litre for blend recorded as recently as February.

The Middle East conflict, which began in late February 2026 when the United States and Israel launched strikes on Iran, triggered Iran’s near-total closure of the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow waterway through which about a fifth of global oil and liquefied natural gas trade normally passes.

The closure cut global oil supply by an estimated 14 million barrels a day at its height and pushed Brent crude above US$100 a barrel for the first time in four years, touching a peak of around US$126 a barrel in March, according to industry reports.

A memorandum of understanding signed by the United States and Iran in June, following weeks of negotiations, set out terms for the strait’s reopening without tolls for at least 60 days. Although the process has been marked by intermittent flare-ups, including fresh US and Iranian strikes in late June that briefly pushed prices back up, shipping data has shown a steady recovery in tanker traffic through the strait since.

Some analysts have since warned of the opposite problem, a potential oil glut, as supply resumes faster than demand – particularly from China – can absorb it.

Zimbabwe has moved in step with the changing fuel landscape by raising its ethanol blending ratio to E20, up from the E5 blend used as recently as April.

ZERA had indicated in April that petrol prices were expected to ease with the commencement of local ethanol production, noting that raising the blending mandate to E20 would lower the petrol price by around 18 cents.