Mexico: Fuel shortage and ‘panic buying’ forces 40 gas stations to close in Cuauhtémoc region
Forty gas stations had to shut on Tuesday due to fuel shortages in the North-West region of Cuauhtémoc in Mexico, causing havoc for drivers and panic buying of fuel, reported El Heraldo.
Javier Urquiza, President of the Northern Union of Gas Retailers (Unegas), which represents 130 gas stations from the territory, stated that explanations had been sought from state-owned oil company Pemex, who were experiencing more difficulties in oil distribution across the country.
The President of the National Petroleum Retailers Organization (Onexpo), Ernesto Lafont, went a step further, and accused Pemex of being incapable of producing sufficient quantities of fuel to supply the whole country, according to Net Noticias.
Other sources point at fuel theft as the main reason behind Pemex’s inability to provide a full nationwide fuel supply.
New gas supply struggles have been registered in service stations of Coahuila y Nuevo León. Pemex will import additional quantities of gasoline to guarantee the supply for the following days, according to Informador.mx.
Growing concern over gas station irregularities
Gas stations in Mexico have not only suffered from fuel shortages; the Federal Consumer Agency (Profeco) has registered that 66% of gas stations in the country presented anomalies and irregularities between January and March - 8 per cent more than the same time last year, as reported by El Universal.
Some of the irregularities at service stations include short measurement of litres, lack of consistent pricing (different measures of fuel for the same monetary quantities), faulty fuel pumps and nozzles, and broken seals.
Profeco analysed 570 gas stations during the first three months of the year, and had to disable a minimum of one gas pump per station in 375 of the establishments due to irregularities - 66% of the cases. Considering that 10% of the service stations visited refused to agree to Profeco’s inspections, only one out of four were found to be in correct condition.
