MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Gasoline, another kind of business in Venezuelan scarcity

Usually the smugglers sell 20 liters at a price of 1,600,000 Bs –or more-, which is equivalent to 3 and a half minimum salaries approximately. Photo: Santi Donaire

It is paradoxical how a country with the largest oil reserves in the world has a shortage of gasoline. Of course, Venezuela does not produce gasoline as such, but sells crude oil and imports gasoline, so with the sanctions imposed by various nations and the very crisis that PDVSA (State Company) suffers - which according to the unions works approximately 13% of its capacity- complicate the problem.

 There are ships outside of Venezuela waiting for payments to be able to land gasoline, however, the necessary procedures or payments have not been done for them, so in 11 of the 23 venezuelan states, people is suffering to full the cars of it.

Gasoline is subsidized by the government at 1 Bs (91 octane) and 6 Bs (95 octane) per liter and, in the so-called 'international filling station' in border states, 330 Bs / liter (about 0.003 dollars to the black dollar in the current or, 0.03 official dollars).

In these States, lines are pending to 2-3 hours in some or 3 days in others, in order to obtain only 30 liters maximum per car or, if money is given to the National Guards -who guard the filling stations- and those who work there, the tank can be filled.

The cars make a line and meanwhile, the motorcycles, make another one or simply pass directly, depending on the filling station, which makes the motorized ones benefit more, having as a consequence also that these ones take out their gasoline later, put it in gas drums and sell it in the streets. Usually they sell 20 liters at a price of 1,600,000 Bs –sometimes more-, which is equivalent to 3 and a half minimum salaries approximately.

Due to the difficulty to have gasoline in the vehicles, there is not enough public or private transportation, which is why many people have spent this Christmas waiting in a line to fill their tank of gasoline or, in most cases, waiting for a truck to arrive at the filling station, so they can buy it.