The price of petrol and diesel will rise sharply next week, with inland consumers set to pay 43c/l more for petrol and between 63c/l and 64c/l more for diesel from Wednesday.

The increases were driven by the higher global product prices of petrol and diesel, as well as the weaker rand/dollar exchange rate, the Department of Energy said on Friday.

The inland petrol price would rise from R8,99/l to R9,42/l and diesel prices would increase from between R8,14/l and R8,21/l to between R8,77/l and R8,85/l.

Oil rose sharply over the past week to touch a two-and-a-half-year high of $119,79/l on Thursday as unrest in Libya sparked fears of supply shortages, despite assurances by top oil exporter Saudi Arabia that it would step in to fill any shortfall.

Reuters reported that unrest has cut a large chunk of Libya's output of 1,6-million barrels a day, prompting Saudi Arabia to launch talks with European companies that buy most of Libya's oil exports.