Watch: Mozambique govt discards fuel price hike, says lack of stock was logistical

Login

Register

http://www.clubofmozambique.com/

Watch: Mozambique govt discards fuel price hike, says lack of stock was logistical

12:42 CAT | 30 Jan 2017

Twitter / A photograph of vehicles queuing in a fuel station in central Maputo

There have been fuel shortages in major Mozambican cities including the capital Maputo since last Thursday, with petrol stations closed for lack of supplies and motorists obliged to drive long distances in search of fuel. A driver interviewed by O Pais said he had had to leave the Zimpeto neighbourhood and drive to Marginal Avenue area to fill up. “I come from Zimpeto, and all the fuel stations I passed were closed for lack of fuel,” he said.

Another driver says he had waited in a long queue to buy petrol at one of the few outlets which still had stock.

Some stations were still open, as was the case of Galp on Friday, with long queues of customers waiting to fill up. “We were forced to find alternatives, because demand was so great,” one of the workers there said.

The National Director of Hydrocarbons and Energy, Moisés Paulino, acknowledged on Saturday that there was a fuel shortage in some cities but said that the lack of stock was a logistical and not a budgetary issue. “There was a slight shortage of fuel at some petrol stations because of a delay in the arrival of tanker ships,” he said.

Paulino said that the situation was already under control and that fuel was being discharged at Maputo, Beira and Nacala ports on Saturday. He did not specify quantities, but said that the fuel would ensure twenty days’ supply, considered a reasonable margin for the country.

Paulino also discounted rumours of a possible rise in the price of fuel circulating on social networks. Fuel however continued to be in short supply in Maputo on Sunday.

See below Moisés Paulino in an interview posted on Sunday on the TVNM’s website.