By Libya Herald reporter.
Tripoli, . . .[restrict]6 August 2015:
The oil minister in the Tripoli administration, Mashallah Zwai, has confirmed that petrol stations in and around the capital will be provided with generators in a bid to end the petrol crisis, one of many being endured by Libyans at present.
The head of the Tripoli “government”, Khalifa Ghwell, had already said that generators would be provided in a TV appearance two days ago.
The petrol crisis is not the result of a shortage of fuel, but the consequence of the power cuts. Without power, the pumps do not work.
It is not clear why it has taken so long for the authorities to link the closure of the stations to the power outages and come up with relatively simple solution of using generators. Two years ago, in the last major petrol crisis, when again power cuts forced stations to close, some station managers bought their own generators to ensure the pumps worked.
Libya’s continuing command economy, which has seen no reform since the revolution, is viewed as largely the culprit.
To further ensure that those with generators can use them, Zwai also disclosed today that daily deliveries of diesel in the capital on which generators rely would be doubled from 10,000 to 20,000 litres.
Tripoli’s bread crisis, which has seen as many has half the city’s bakeries shut, prices rocket and a black market develop in which a baguette is now selling at one dinar, is also largely put down to the electricity crisis rather than a shortage of flour. Without electricity, many of the ovens cannot work. [/restrict]
