Mozambican diesel is 116.25 meticais a litre at the ports — about US$1.83, the dearest of the six countries we track. It got there in a single step: on 9 May 2026 the price went up 45.5% overnight, from 79.88 MT, where it had sat since June 2025. And it is not one price. Mozambique charges more the further inland you buy, and that difference is worth understanding before you plan a Beira or Nacala run.
The one-line version. Beira to Tete is 586 km. Diesel costs 116.25 MT at Beira and 121.64 MT at Tete — a 5.39 MT premium for the same litre, which is the road freight cost written into the pump price. Fill at the port.
Who sets the price, and how often
Prices are regulated by ARENE, the Autoridade Reguladora de Energia, but the big adjustments are approved by the Council of Ministers — the May 2026 change was signed off at its 12th ordinary session on 6 May and took effect on 9 May. There is no fixed monthly cycle. Prices can sit unchanged for the better part of a year and then move a long way at once, which is exactly what happened.
| From 9 May 2026 | Previously | Change | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Diesel (gasóleo) | 116.25 MT | 79.88 MT | +36.37 MT, +45.5% |
| Petrol (gasolina) | 93.86 MT | 83.57 MT | +10.29 MT, +12.3% |
| Paraffin | 97.56 MT | 66.86 MT | +30.70 MT, +45.9% |
🔴 One country, six diesel prices — and the gap is us
This is the thing to take away from this page. ARENE sets a different price for each region, and the ladder runs from the ports outward. The premium an inland province pays is the cost of trucking the fuel there. Nowhere else in this cluster is road freight cost so plainly visible inside a published government price.
| Region | Diesel, MT/litre | MT above the ports | % | In USD |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Maputo / Matola / Beira / Nacala / Pemba | 116.25 | — | — | US$1.83 |
| Quelimane (Zambezia) | 120.70 | +4.45 | +3.8% | US$1.90 |
| Tete | 121.64 | +5.39 | +4.6% | US$1.91 |
| Lichinga (Niassa) | 123.27 | +7.02 | +6.0% | US$1.94 |
| Mecula (Niassa) (one source) | 126.27 | +10.02 | +8.6% | US$1.99 |
| Mueda / Palma (Cabo Delgado) (one source) | 131.85 | +15.60 | +13.4% | US$2.07 |
Read it as a freight rate. Beira to Tete is 586 km and the premium is 5.39 MT a litre — about 9.19 MT per litre per 1 000 km. Run that logic to Mueda and Palma in Cabo Delgado and the premium reaches 15.60 MT, a 13.4% mark-up on the same litre. That is not a market failure. It is the price of a long haul on a hard road, and someone is being paid to do it.
What drove the May increase
| Force | What happened | Who controls it |
|---|---|---|
| The global product price | Prime Minister Benvinda Levi told the Assembly the adjustment was a response to rising international markets driven by the Middle East conflict. That is the same event regulators across the region name: Tanzania’s EWURA dates it to 28 February 2026 and the closure of the Strait of Hormuz; Botswana’s BERA measured international diesel product prices up 90.8% between February and March. | Nobody here |
| The metical | A secondary force here. The dominant factor was the product price and the size of the gap that had been allowed to build. | Nobody here |
| Holding the price too long | 🔴 The distinctively Mozambican force, and it cuts both ways. Diesel had been held at 79.88 MT since June 2025. Holding a price while costs rise does not remove the cost — it stores it. When the adjustment finally came it arrived as 45.5% in one day, rather than as twelve manageable monthly moves. Zambia, Tanzania and Namibia all reviewed monthly through the same shock and none of them delivered a single move anywhere near that size. | The government |
What it costs on the Mozambican corridors we measure
44 of our 269 active corridors touch Mozambique — second only to Zambia in this group, because three of the region’s gateway ports are here. Beira serves Zimbabwe, Zambia and Malawi; Nacala serves the north and Malawi; Maputo sits four hours from Johannesburg. Worked at 2.5 km per litre, which is a loaded interlink on reasonable road. A lighter rig does better and a hard pull does worse — the point is the shape, and your own figure slots straight in.
| Leg | km | Diesel, one way | in USD | Same fuel at the SA wholesale price |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nacala – Nampula | 192 | 8 937 | US$141 | US$139 |
| Beira – Chimoio | 199 | 9 244 | US$145 | US$144 |
| Tete – Blantyre | 217 | 10 090 | US$159 | US$157 |
| Tete – Lilongwe | 360 | 16 721 | US$263 | US$260 |
| Nacala – Cuamba | 542 | 25 198 | US$396 | US$392 |
| Maputo – Johannesburg | 544 | 25 287 | US$398 | US$393 |
| Beira – Harare | 565 | 26 282 | US$413 | US$408 |
| Beira – Tete | 586 | 27 263 | US$429 | US$424 |
| Maputo – Beira | 1 218 | 56 632 | US$891 | US$880 |
| Beira – Lusaka | 1 406 | 65 365 | US$1 028 | US$1 016 |
Where diesel is cheaper across the border
Mozambique is the expensive one in this neighbourhood, and by enough to change how you plan a run.
| Diesel | In USD | What kind of price | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mozambique, ports | 116.25 MT | US$1.83 | regulated pump price |
| Mozambique, Tete | 121.64 MT | US$1.91 | regulated pump price |
| South Africa, inland | R29.11 | US$1.81 | wholesale list — the pump is higher |
| Zimbabwe | US$1.95 | US$1.95 | ZERA maximum pump price |
| Zambia | K26.86 | US$1.41 | uniform national pump price |
- Maputo–Johannesburg: the two are close on paper, but the South African figure is wholesale. Compared pump to pump there is not much in it, so this is a route where fuel price should not drive the plan. The Maputo corridor guide has what does.
- Beira–Harare: Mozambique at US$1.83 against Zimbabwe’s US$1.95 ceiling. Fill on the Mozambican side before Machipanda. The Zimbabwean ceiling is here.
- Beira or Tete–Lusaka: Zambia is 23% cheaper and prices one rate nationwide. Carry what you need to reach Zambia and fill there. Zambian prices are here.
- Anywhere inland in Mozambique: the regional premium is real money over a long leg. Lift at Beira, Nacala or Maputo where the trip allows it.
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Questions people ask
What is the diesel price in Mozambique now?
116.25 meticais a litre at Maputo, Matola, Beira, Nacala and Pemba, in force since 9 May 2026. Inland provinces pay more: 120.70 MT at Quelimane, 121.64 MT at Tete and 123.27 MT at Lichinga.
Who sets fuel prices in Mozambique?
ARENE, the Autoridade Reguladora de Energia, regulates them, and major adjustments are approved by the Council of Ministers. There is no fixed monthly review cycle.
Why is diesel more expensive inland in Mozambique?
Because ARENE sets a different price per region and builds the transport cost in. The further from a port, the higher the price — from 116.25 MT at the coast to 123.27 MT at Lichinga, and reportedly 131.85 MT at Mueda and Palma.
Why did Mozambican fuel go up 45% in May 2026?
The price had been held at 79.88 MT since June 2025 while international product prices rose sharply, particularly after the Middle East conflict that began in late February 2026. When the adjustment came on 9 May 2026 it delivered the whole accumulated gap at once.
Is diesel cheaper in Mozambique or South Africa?
They are close, and closer than the headline suggests. 116.25 MT is about US$1.83 against a South African inland wholesale price of about US$1.81 — but South African retail sits above wholesale, so at two pumps Mozambique is likely the cheaper of the two at the coast and the dearer inland.
Has the Mozambican fuel price changed since May 2026?
Not as far as we can establish. Petromoc, the state fuel company, still publishes the same price range on its public page as at 1 September 2026. We update this page when ARENE next adjusts.
How we put this together
The May 2026 prices and the regional schedule come from Mozambican press reports of the ARENE announcement, cross-checked against Petromoc’s own public price page, which still shows the same range today — that is what lets us say the price is still current rather than merely the last one announced. Two regional figures rest on a single source and are marked as such in the table. No monthly time series is published for Mozambique and we have not estimated one. Corridor distances are our own, measured on the road network rather than straight-line. Currency conversions use one dated quote for every post in this set — exchangerate-api.com, reading of 1 September 2026 — so the six countries can be compared with each other. Rates move; the litre price is the number to trust, not the dollar one.
Related: pricing a Mozambican corridor job · the Beira corridor · the Nacala corridor · the Maputo corridor · Zambian diesel prices · all fuel and freight cost coverage
