/ 29 July 2009

Stations run dry as Mozambique fuel crisis bites

Drivers in Mozambique faced long lines and short supply at petrol stations on Wednesday as price negotiations between the government and suppliers failed to resolve a deepening fuel crisis.

Petrol stations say they can’t afford to keep supplying fuel at low state-controlled prices, and pumps have begun running dry.

Government has promised to pay subsidies to the suppliers to offset the price difference, but the Mozambican Association of Petroleum Companies (Amepetrol) says no money has actually been paid out yet.

State media reported that talks between the Energy Ministry and Amepetrol had failed to resolve the two-week-old fuel crisis by Wednesday morning.

Amepetrol told state newspaper Noticias that service stations in the capital, Maputo, were operating at 40% capacity.

But several stations visited by Agence France-Presse were not supplying any fuel at all.

”I don’t know when we’ll have petrol again,” said a BP employee, who sat idly at an empty station on Wednesday.

”It’s annoying,” he added. ”We have no work.”

Amepetrol told state broadcaster TVM it wouldn’t reopen the pumps until the government began paying out subsidies.

State oil company Petromoc has said it has enough reserves to supply the whole country until the next fuel shipment arrives on August 3, according to independent newspaper O Pais.

Long lines have formed at Petromoc stations throughout Maputo.

A Petromoc spokesperson told O Pais the company has been supplying an extra 20-million litres a day since the crisis began.

Amepetrol says the government price controls, which currently cap a litre of unleaded at 89 United States cents, led to $200-million in losses last year.

The government promised last week not to raise petrol prices despite Amepetrol’s supply strike.

Maputo was paralysed in 2008 by fuel price riots that saw police open fire on protesters, killing three. — Sapa-AFP