Drivers fume amid fuel shortages

Motorists continue to face long queues at petrol stations as shortages in the emirate entered their fourth day. Witnesses narrated dramatic scenes at pumps across Sharjah yesterday, with waits of up to 45 minutes. Many motorists reportedly abandoned their cars by the roadside. Sharjah and Ajman residents urged the concerned parties to take action to resolve the shortage. Gulf News repeatedly tried to contact officials of major petrol suppliers to get them to comment on the situation but to no avail. "I went to fill up my car at an Adnoc station at 1am because that's when everybody's asleep. I saw the long queues in the morning and at first I stayed and waited, but ended up waiting for 45 minutes. There was no way I was going to put myself through that again, so I would rather go to bed late instead," said Jasem Al Balushi. "I also saw lots of cars abandoned on Maleha Road and Maysaloon, which is very dangerous because cars go very fast there and it looks like there is an accident waiting to happen." Usman Ahmad, a resident of Al Majaz, said he ran out of petrol on Saturday and was unable to tank up yesterday morning. "I had to drive to Dubai with the yellow light of the gas tank [indicator] lit. It was worrying because the car could have stopped at any minute, and the petrol stations were closed in Al Majaz. There are [stalled] cars all along the road, and this has been happening for several days now," he said. Alia Abdul Rahman, another resident, faced a similar situation when she tried to refuel. "I couldn't believe that the petrol stations were dry. I eventually found one near Al Qasimi Hospital and had to wait for over 20 minutes to fill up the tank. I was lucky that I found one soon, because the next day I had to drive to Fujairah and I would hate to have been stuck on the side of the road," she said. "In Al Dhaid, many Eppco stations were closed down and that the employees had put up cones everywhere. The employees were driving people away, telling them that they were closed for business," she added. Logistics problem During a similar episode a couple of months ago in April, Dubai-based oil retailer Emarat attributed the shortage to a logistics problem. In a statement issued through WAM, Emarat said the "shortage occurred due to logistics issues as a result of fuel tankers not arriving to the loading docks as per the delivery schedule." Last week, Enoc spokesman Khalid Hadi attributed a portion of the closures of Enoc and Eppco stations to equipment upgrading. "Enoc is managing its fuel supplies to meet the current demand. This involves a two-pronged approach of regulating the distribution of fuel through our network, as well as upgrading selected stations," the oil firm said on May 26 in a statement provided to Gulf News. "Enoc is working with concerned authorities to further enhance the supplies. Simultaneously, we are accelerating the upgrade process. From April, fuel shortages were reported again in May and June. The issue today remains in Sharjah. Since their initial statement, petrol retailers have remained quiet on the recurring issue leaving analysts with no clear indication of the reasoning and issues behind the shortages. "I've discussed this with a colleague and no one seems to know. It's purely based on speculation as the oil companies themselves haven't revealed why. It could be a supply disruption, maybe," Pradeep Unni, a senior analyst of Research and Trading at Richcomm Global Services DMCC, told Gulf News. Dalton Garis, associate professor of economics at the Arab Petroleum Institute, Abu Dhabi, agreed with Enoc's earlier explanation that it was a logistics problem. "It could simply be a balancing problem. Sharjah was probably given a little less or it could be a logistics problem with one of the pipelines down," he said.