Petrol shortage: No fuel for miles

Most petrol stations shut as petrol stores dwindle.

LAHORE: Most of the filling stations in the city remained shut for the second day on Thursday after they exhausted their petroleum stores.

Muhammad Aslam, owner of a petrol station, said oil refineries had stopped supplying them petroleum despite a recent spike in demand.

“You will see long queues of motorbikes and cars in front of some petrol pumps... only a handful of petrol stations in the city have fuel,” he said.

Owners of filling stations, which had run out of fuel, cordoned off petrol stations with barbed wire and tents.

Signboards carrying the message “Petrol not available, sorry for the inconvenience” were placed in front of several petrol stations. Most of their staff took the day off and security guards stood in front of the petrol pumps waving potential customers away.

Aslam said the shortage began on Monday and worsened on Thursday. Petroleum stores dwindled and fresh supply had halted, he said.

Muhammad Safdar, an irate citizen who had been waiting in queue to fill his car, said, “I have been waiting in line to get petrol for the past two hours. The government has not been able to handle the supply and demand of fuel.”

News of petrol shortage has been making rounds all week but the government hasn’t taken any steps to ameliorate the situation, he said. “Fuel stations that do have petrol aren’t selling more than five litres per car,” he said.

Muhammad Asif stood next to his motorcycle waiting for his turn. “They’re not giving us [motorcycle drivers] more than one litre. It is not fair. I’ve been waiting for my turn for so long.”

Small quarrels erupted at various petrol stations over the petrol rationing which many customers deemed unreasonable.

Ahmed Din, a worker at a petrol station, said the owner of the fuel station had told them to sell one litre of petrol to motorcycle riders and five litres to cars. He said their stores of petrol were almost depleted.

Several people set up makeshift stalls in some areas to sell petrol in black. They charged Rs110 of a litre compared to the market price of Rs78.80 for a litre.

Ustad Majid, the owner of a vehicle workshop, said most of these stalls were selling adulterated fuel, because of which several vehicle owners had visited his workshop complaining of mechanical faults their vehicles had developed.

A spokesperson for the city district government said the government was in contact with petrol supply companies. He said 1.3 million litres of petroleum had been supplied to petrol stations in the city in the last 24 hours. He said the government would not allow anyone to sell fuel in black.

PPP slams govt over fuel shortage

As if gas and electricity load shedding was not enough, long queues at petrol filling stations are salt to the wound, PPP Punjab Secretary General Tanvir Ashraf Kaira said in a statement issued on Thursday.

He said most people had taken to cooking food on wood fire because of the persistent gas and electricity load shedding. Because of the energy crisis, citizens have already begun to fear their fate in the scorching summer, he said.

The government should have planned ahead, he said. “They should have realised the gravity of the situation and pre-empted the supply halt.”

An assurance from the minister for petroleum that the situation will improve once ships transporting petrol reach Karachi port, is peanuts, he said.

Kaira called on the government to fix the responsibility for the shortage on someone. “We deserve to know who caused this miserable state of affairs. They must be taken to task.”

Published in The Express Tribune, January 16^th, 2015.