Cars queue outside of a gas station in Beirut's Hamra neighborhood on March 5, 2022. (Credit: Mohamad El Chamaa/L'Orient Today)
BEIRUT — Saturday saw the return of lengthy gas station lines in various parts of Lebanon, amid warnings of potential impending fuel shortages and price fluctuations as part of the fallout of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Here's what we know:
• Fadi Abu Shakra, a representative of the fuel distributors in Lebanon, told the Al Nashra news site that Energy Minister Walid Fayad "has not yet issued a schedule for the installation of fuel prices according to the global rise in the price of oil,” adding that “the quantities available at the stations suffices for a few days, and the oil companies have adopted rationing in the delivery of stations due to fluctuations in prices."
• The head of the Association of Petroleum Importing Companies, Maroun Chammas said that "the fuel market is now going through a very exceptional and unprecedented situation, as a result of the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine" and suggested that "the market may witness a shortage of goods during the current month of March due to the difficulty of finding alternative markets."
• Meanwhile, offering a somewhat contradictory message, Culture Minister Mohamad Mortada posted on Twitter, "For those who are asking: There is no gasoline crisis. There are attempts to create a crisis and to make people panic. There is no need to rush to the gas stations." He added that fuel ships are expected to unload Monday or Tuesday "at the latest."
• On Monday, gas station owners issued a statement accusing fuel distributors of hoarding fuel while waiting for prices to rise, thus creating "a shortage that does not exist.”
• Whatever the case, the sudden reappearance of fuel lines led many to fear a return to the dark days of last summer's fuel shortages, when drivers became accustomed to spending hours in the so-called "queues of humiliation," sometimes coming away empty-handed and empty-tanked in the end when the supply ran out before they reached the front of the line.
Are we really back to spending Saturdays on fuel refills? ?
— Maya Yared (@MayaYared) March 5, 2022
• At the time, Banque du Liban blamed the gas shortages on smugglers taking subsidized fuel to sell in Syria and on fuel importers allegedly hoarding large amounts of fuel in order to sell it at higher prices in anticipation of the end of fuel subsidies, while importers accused BDL of failing to pay invoices for subsidized essential goods. Since then, the fuel subsidies have largely been removed.