No end to fuel crisis

A state oil official has dismissed media reports of an imminent easing of Zimbabwe’s crippling fuel shortage as false, Reuters reported on Tuesday, quoting the state-controlled ‘Herald’ newspaper. “It’s no use continuing to lie to members of the public regarding the fuel situation in the country,” Webster Muriritirwa, managing director of the state oil procurement agency NOCZIM, was quoted as saying. “There is no solution yet in sight for the problem we are facing,” he added.

Fuel shortages have plagued Zimbabwe over the past 15 months due to a foreign currency crisis and NOCZIM’s heavy debt. Muriritirwa said Zimbabwe’s main fuel supplier, Independent Petroleum Group (IPG) of Kuwait, had suspended fuel pumping at the Mozambican port of Beira over non-payment. President Robert Mugabe’s government needs an average of US $40 million a month for fuel imports but has been struggling to pay IPG, which supplies 70 percent of Zimbabwe’s fuel.

Oil industry officials reported on Monday that many fuel stations in Zimbabwe had run dry and the situation was desperate in the capital Harare where thousands of motorists were stuck in queues. Businesses and factories are closing or scaling down operations as demand falls and a hard currency shortage makes it impossible to import vital raw materials.