7 July 2009
Maputo — The fuel crisis over the past week in the central Mozambican province of Manica is due to poor distribution, rather than any real shortage, according to Manuel Braga, general director of the fuel import company, Imopetro.
The fuel pumps ran dry in the Manica provincial capital, Chimoio, last week, and speculators immediately took advantage of the crisis to create a black market selling petrol and diesel at exorbitant prices. The reason given for the crisis was that a ship carrying refined fuels had been unable to dock at the central Mozambican port of Beira because of bad weather.
But cited in Tuesday's issue of the Maputo daily "Noticias", Braga said there was enough diesel available to satisfy the requirements of the entire country.
He said that average daily consumption of diesel in the central provinces is 275 tonnes. Last Thursday, 2,400 tonnes was available, and so there should have been no crisis. There was enough diesel in stock in central Mozambique for over a week of normal supplies.
This was not an ideal situation. Braga said that, under a government decree, Imopetro is supposed to ensure a fuel reserve of 22 days. Nonetheless, there was no good reason for filling stations in Chimoio to run out.
"We don't yet really know what happened", said Braga, "but I must stress that there is diesel, and there were no reasons for this problem. Some of the procedures for the distribution from Beira must have failed, but stocks never ran out".
Braga added that a ship carrying 7,000 tonnes of diesel is due to dock in Beira on Tuesday, which should ease the situation considerably.
Pf/ (282)
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