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A12 WORLD NEWS
Thursday 7 March 2019

Gas scarcity could turn Venezuela’s crisis to catastrophe

By SCOTT SMITH Venezuela Latin America’s down on the oil sector will a quick profit. well as fuel in storage and
SHEYLA URDANETA wealthiest country pro- be painful for their people, Ixchel Castro, a Mexico shipments from India and
Associated Press vide the primary source of but add that the measures City-based analyst at the European countries that
MARACAIBO, Venezu- the hard currency it needs are necessary to keep Wood Mackenzie energy aren’t subject to sanctions.
ela (AP) — Marin Mendez But the fuel quality will suf-
leaned a shoulder into his fer and there will be short-
rusty Chevy Malibu, rolling it ages, Castro said.
forward each time the line These are already being felt
of cars inched closer to the in San Cristobal near the
pump. Waiting hours to fill Colombian border, where
up, he says, is the high cost 55-year-old mechanic Ge-
he pays for gasoline that’s rardo Marquez said he got
nearly free in socialist Ven- in line one recent Monday
ezuela. afternoon. On Tuesday the
“You line up to get your gas truck didn’t show up as
pension, line up to buy promised, and on Wednes-
food, line up to pump your day he was still there after
gas,” an exasperated Men- spending two nights with his
dez said after 40 minutes car.
of waiting in the swelter- Relatives did bring him
ing heat in Maracaibo food, water and a pillow,
— ironically the center of and gave him a chance
the country’s oil industry — to get away for bathroom
and expecting to be there breaks, he said. But he
hours or days more. “I’ve barely napped. “We’re all
had enough!” on guard so they don’t rob
Lines stretching a mile (ki- us,” he said.
lometer) or more to fuel up In Maracaibo, once known
have plagued this western as the Saudi Arabia of
region of Venezuela for In this Jan. 30, 2019 photo, bottles of black market gasoline sit for sale on a sidewalk in Maracaibo, Venezuela as a center of
years — despite the coun- Venezuela. Associated Press the country’s oil boom,
try’s status as holder of the residents have endured
world’s largest oil reserves. to import food and other Maduro’s government from research firm, said Vene- shortages for at least three
Now, shortages threaten goods. Today, its basic in- further looting Venezuelan zuela’s domestic gasoline years. Trucks to deliver the
to spread countrywide as frastructure — roads, pow- resources. supply has been down by fuel are too few and daily
supplies of petrol become er grid, water lines and oil Meanwhile, a defiant Mad- as much as 15 percent in power failures compound
even scarcer amid a rag- refineries — is crumbling. uro says the economic war recent years as the coun- the problem, leaving gas
ing struggle over political Food and medicine, nearly led by the White House is a try’s refineries and infra- pumps idle. Just two of Ma-
control of Venezuela. all of it imported, are scarce precursor to a military inva- structure fail — a trend that racaibo’s 150 gas stations
The Trump administration and expensive as Venezue- sion to oust him from power is expected to accelerate. have generators to provide
hit Venezuela’s state-run la endures the world’s high- and seize Venezuela’s vast PDVSA provided 160,000 gas during rampant black-
oil firm PDVSA with sanc- est inflation. oil wealth. Maduro tweet- barrels a day for domestic outs.
tions in late January in a Critics blame Venezuela’s ed a warning on Wednes- use last year, but with the Fed up with waiting in lines,
sweeping strategy aimed collapse on the govern- day that nobody should be U.S. sanctions and ongoing the 62-year-old Marin said
at forcing President Nico- ment’s two decades of self- fooled by apparent ges- infrastructure challenges, he plans to start hoarding
las Maduro from power in proclaimed “socialist revo- tures of assistance, alluding that supply can be expect- gas at home, despite the
favor of opposition leader lution,” which has been to tons of U.S. humanitarian ed to fall to 60,000 barrels a danger the explosive fuel
Juan Guaido. marred by corruption and aid he recently blocked day, she said, meeting just poses to his wife, children
Doomsday predictions mismanagement, first un- from entering. 38 percent of the country’s and grandchildren. He re-
immediately followed — der the late Hugo Chavez “The Venezuelan opposi- needs. lies on his car for his part-
mostly fueled by Maduro’s and now under Maduro’s tion and the U.S. govern- Exacerbating the problem time job ferrying paying
opponents and U.S. offi- rule. ment don’t want to help are shortages of diluent, customers to supplement
cials — that Venezuela’s The U.S. sanctions essen- the country,” Maduro said. a critical product needed his modest $6-a-month
domestic gasoline sup- tially cut PDVSA off from “Just the opposite. They to thin Venezuela’s tar-like pension checks.
plies would last no more its Houston-based subsid- crave our natural resourc- heavy crude so it can be In the capital, Caracas, res-
than a week or so. That iary Citgo, depriving it of es. They want to unleash piped over 100 miles (160 idents brace for shortages
hasn’t happened yet, but $11 billion in hard currency ‘The Oil War’ to invade and kilometers) from the field like these to finally hit them.
more misery is feared as from exports this year that dominate our homeland.” to be turned into gaso- The metropolitan area of
expected shortages have U.S. officials say bankrolled Despite years of economic line. Russia has stepped in, 7 million people has so far
economic implications far Maduro’s “dictatorship.” decline leading to Venezu- sending two tankers of the been immune to frustrating
beyond longer gas lines, U.S. officials have turned ela’s current crisis, residents thinner, but these supplies gas lines.
turning Venezuela’s crisis to control of Citgo over to enjoy some of the world’s will last just five to 10 days, But an attendant at a PD-
a catastrophe. Guaido’s interim govern- cheapest gasoline — fill- said Russ Dallen, managing VSA station sees them
“Crucially, it will lead to ment, essentially expropri- ing up a tank for less than partner of Caracas Capi- coming, recounting how a
more shortages of food ating the company, a strat- a penny. But gas is already tal, a brokerage company. customer filled up his car
and basic goods,” said Di- egy Venezuela’s socialist hard to get in Maracaibo “It’s nothing,” he said. “It’s then returned a few min-
ego Moya-Ocampos, a government employed and other cities along the a drop in the bucket of utes later with an empty
Venezuela analyst with the for years by seizing private Colombian border, where what they need.” tank. He’d siphoned his
London-based consulting companies. smugglers sneak Venezue- Gasoline won’t completely tank to get around a gov-
firm IHS Global Insight. Opposition leaders bent on la’s dirt-cheap fuel into the dry up in Venezuela, which ernment ban on filling up
That’s because the vast oil ousting Maduro say they neighboring country, selling still has access to waning gas cans to crack down on
reserves that once made recognize the U.S. crack- it at international prices for domestic production, as smugglers.q