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By Sami Zaptia.
Tripoli, 11 June 2014:
The petrol crisis continued today in Tripoli despite Brega Petroleum Marketing Company publishing data showing . . .[restrict]huge quantities of fuel had been delivered over the last few days to the four main petrol distributing companies: Sharara, Oil Libya, Rahila and the Highway Services Company.
Tripoli’s roads have been eerily quiet all week as the week-long petrol crisis has meant that by now, large numbers of drivers had used up their reserves. Many have had to absent themselves from events, press conferences and the like. These have either had very low turnouts or have had to be postponed as a result of the fuel shortage.
Libya Herald’s staff, for example, have had to either use taxis, which have become a rare sight, or curtail the number of events they have had to cover.
But despite Brega releasing data of the huge quantities of fuel delivered, most petrol stations have continued to elect to remain closed. For the few stations that have been brave and remained opened, scenes have at some been chaotic. This has put off many customers from queuing in the first place, waiting in hope that more petrol stations open and that queues either subside or are at least orderly.
Unsurprisingly, most of the trouble caused at the queues is caused by a small minority of, mostly, young men trying to cash-in on the lack of petrol. Opposite a number of petrol stations an alternative black market of mainly blue plastic jerry cans full of petrol can be found for customers who simply can no longer do without petrol. The increasing power cuts have only compounded the situation.
It is quite clear that if the statistics for the quantity of fuel delivered by Brega are accurate, the petrol crisis may have started as a result of the late arrival of petrol from overseas caused by rough seas. However, now, the problem seems to be the continued inability of the Libyan state to provide security at petrol stations.
At yesterday’s cabinet meeting, a committee was formed to investigate the petrol crisis. Over the last couple of weeks both the Ahmed Maetig and Abdullah Thinni contesting governments had been absorbed by the political struggle over power.
This is the umpteenth petrol crisis to hit Tripoli and Libya, and despite previous promises that steps had been taken to prevent it from reoccurring, the problem persists. Some analysts and conspiracy theorists suspect that the petrol crises have been manufactured as a political ploy.
The hope now is that now that the Thinni government endorsed by the Supreme Court, it can urgently solve the petrol crises before Tripoli stalls to a complete halt. [/restrict]
