Sharjah petrol pumps continue to run dry

Petrol stations across Sharjah continue to run dry as retailers remain quiet. Residents across Sharjah have had to wake up early to ensure they are able to get to the petrol station before it runs out. "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, a Sharjah commuter. This has continued since Thursday when petrol stations across Dubai and Sharjah ran dry. In recent days it has been Sharjah emirate which continues to suffer. Retailers remain quiet offering no reason why the problem still persists leaving consumers as well as analysts without any clear indication. "I've discussed this with [my] 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," Pradeep Unni, a senior analyst of Research and Trading at Richcomm Global Services DMCC, told Gulf News.