Venezuela: Troops take over 38 gas stations in the state of Táchira

[ChangoLoa]

From Tuesday, Venezuelan National Guard and Army troops took over 38 gas pumps in the state of Táchira (on the border with Colombia) to prevent "destabilizing actions" related to the supply of fuel.

Ricardo Sanguino, the president of the Committee on Finance, National Assembly, said that the government has implemented several measures in San Cristóbal (the capital of the state of Táchira) and in its metropolitan area, "because there is a huge number of vehicles, and that creates problems in the area."

Sanguino reported that some gas station owners "are promoting destabilization plans" because they delay the opening of the pump stations, which should be opened at 6:00 a.m., and many times they decide to close them.

He added that there is enough fuel to meet demand of gasoline in Táchira state. He said that the alleged shortage of fuel is politically motivated by Governor César Pérez Vivas.

Link:
http://english.eluniversal.com/2010/03/30/en_eco_art_troops-take-over-38_30A3669213.shtml

[protocol rv]

1. Shortage Caused by PDVSA lacking trucks due to power plant needs

The shortages happened because PDVSA had to use the fuel delivery fleet to deliver diesel to the new power plants - they opened in Tachira one at Ureña. But they forgot they had to ship a lot of diesel to these plants. So the gasoline stations ran low on fuel. The government couldn't tell the people something as simple as "well, we ran low on trucks", so they started blaming the gasoline station operators and put troops in the gasoline stations. But the problem doesn't need troops, all they had to do was get a few additional trucks.

Long term, we got a serious problem because they are putting in plants which suposedly will consume 100 thousand barrels per day of diesel. That's a lot of diesel. And they'll need a lot of trucks to move it around. Which means there are going to be trucks getting in accidents on the roads - and a lot of diesel spills. We know by now we can't expect these guys to think ahead of time, so I guess we'll have to be patient.

[spanza]

2. More and more desperate. nt

[bemildred]

3. Yep, looks more and more like increasing decline. nt