Fuel shortage eats Iraqis
10/12/2004 11:28
It was 10:30 a.m. in Baghdad's al- Mansour District. From one side of a
petrol station a line of cars extended over one kilometer as the drivers were in
desperate need of benzene (gasoline).
Bumper-to-bumper, all cars waiting in
the row move in a snail's pace. Those in the tail of the line stuck out necks
from cars or stood on tiptoe, gazing ahead to figure out how many hours, or
perhaps days, it will take to go over the kilometer.
"I came at about 4:30 am
Tuesday and today is Thursday, still I can not manage to fill the tank of my car
with benzene. Where is the government? Where is the minister of oil?" lamented
an exhausted Sabar Abdullah, blaming the government for not having taken
effective measure to ensure the supply.
Salman Khalil, another queuer, said
his patience is wearing thin as he didn't believe there is no solution to the
benzene- shortage crisis.
"My guess is the occupation forces would like to
see this happen. They simply want to keep Iraqis running around with everything
so they would forget what the occupiers have done to Iraqi cities and people,"
he said.
Only a block away, a young guy, with a de-bottomed Pepsi container
as a filler in his shabby clothes, approached a passing motorist offering to
sell benzene.
While the tag price at fuel stations remains 50 Iraqi dinars
per liter, price in black market has been jacked up to about 1,000 dinars per
liter. Benzene vendors fill their tanks from stations and sell benzene on
roadside out of 20- to 100-liter containers.
Some go for the containers as
they can't afford time to queue.
Black market has been running rampant in
Baghdad as many taxi drivers turn to a more profitable business by storing
benzene and selling it to helpless fuel seekers.
The illegible benzene
business has angered many. A black-clad Um Fatima showed the blanket and pillow
in her car,
"My husband and I have been taking turns to rest in the car. I
come in the morning and he replaces me in the evening and sleeps in the car."
The couple have used their car as a movable bed for the past 48 hours and more
are needed.
"Can you imagine such a crisis unfolding in a country with a
largest oil reservoir?" she groaned.
Although the country boasts the
second-largest oil reserves in the world, such important petroleum products as
benzene are in short supply.
The country's oil production, its economic
lifeblood, has been the target of repeated attacks by insurgents in recent
months. The sabotages undermine the new Iraqi government's attempt to bring
about economic recovery and improve the poor living conditions that feed
insurgency and political unrest.
Iraqi officials said that threat to owners
of gas stations and workers in oil institutions by armed groups also hinders oil
production, resulting in frustration and a rampant black market.
Though the
government outlawed black-market benzene, many street vendors venture the
business as the unemployment rate runs as high as above 40 percent in the
country.
A benzene vendor who refuses to be identified said staff workers at
gas stations are supplying them with the fuel. "Police are also involved in this
business," he said.
Abu Sinan, a 68-year-old Baghdad chauffeur, said he once
tipped the police with 2,000 dinars for being led directly before a fuel
injector, leaving an angry dozen protesting behind him.
A young man, who
preferred not to be named, said he has been in Baghdad since two days ago,
without knowing when is his turn to fill the tank.
"Enough is enough," he
said. "By the way, do you know where I can buy a bike instead?" he asked,
clearly not in a joking way.
Xinhua
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