8 January 2009
A shortage of petrol has hit Livingstone as most filling stations have run out of the commodity.
A check in the tourist capital showed that most filling stations did not have petrol, but had diesel in stock.
Total Filling Station in town ran out of petrol three days ago and was expecting new stock by yesterday.
At BP Filling Station, attendants said they were also expecting petrol yesterday and only had diesel in stock.
Kobil Filling Station received petrol yesterday morning while diesel stocks had run out.
A check at Vuma Filling Station showed that new stocks of petrol had just been delivered.
Energy Regulation Board communications officer, Kwali Mfuni said the board would investigate the fuel shortage in Livingstone.
Ms Mfuni said it was surprising that Livingstone had a shortage of petrol when the country had enough stocks.
Petroleum industry sources said the filling stations that had run out of petrol could have been importing cheaper finished products until the Government's recent increase of duty on imported fuel.
The Government hiked the duty on imported fuel from five to 25 per cent after Tazama Pipelines complained that it was stuck with huge quantities of fuel because oil marketing companies were not buying fuel from its terminal.
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i have availiable on a monthly basis, 25 million litres of unleaded petrol and diesel