Tonight the fuel shortage we told about on Tuesday is acute: gas stations all over the country have run out of diesel fuel - and the few gas stations that do have say they only have a few gallons available. How did it come to this? Well, as we told you on Tuesday, the shipment from PDVSA in Venezuela is late and industry observers say the local office for ALBA Petro-Caribe Belize Energy Limited did not properly project for the fuel consumption in March - when fuel consumption is always highest.
The situation right now is that the ship is loading tonight in Curacao - but won't arrive in Belize until next week Tuesday - over a week late. This evening, we called 10 gas stations in Belize City and out district - and only one of them had diesel fuel. UNO tells us that nine of their eleven gas stations countrywide have no diesel.
So, the situation right now is acute - and those who use diesel want to know when it will get better. Well, we know that PUMA continues to truck in fuel from Guatemala - and the APBEL office in Belize tells us that 40 trucks have been brought in since last week. Trucks keep coming every day, but that's hardly enough - and those scarce supplies are being rationed.
So what has created this shortage? The Deputy Chairman of APBEL John Mencias tells us that there was a 30% spike in fuel demand in March which is driving the shortage. He added that lower prices, higher demand, smuggling of cheap fuel from Belize across the border, and lack of adequate storage facility have all combined to create the shortage.
The concern for fuel stations now is that when the Diesel tanker does come in - PUMA, which controls the importation, will feed diesel to its service stations, first, and on a preferential basis - putting other service stations at a disadvantage. UNO tells us that they have back orders for two hundred thousand gallons of diesel. We'll keep monitoring the situation - but out only advice tonight is that if you find diesel anywhere buy as much as your gas tank can hold - because it's very scarce.
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