MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Fuel supply getting back to normal in Bolivia

“The lines we had for gasoline have progressively diminished,” Hurtado said

Bolivia's State-run oil company YPFB announced Tuesday that it had restored fuel shipments to the levels before the 24-day road blockade by former President Evo Morales followers, which disrupted supply and caused a nationwide crisis. YPFB explained that 7 million liters of gasoline and the same amount of diesel were distributed, thus ending the long queues at petrol stations that had become a common sight in recent weeks.

”On a normal day, (the dispatch) of both diesel and gasoline is 7 million liters. On the days of the blockade, we have dispatched less volume and, obviously, this has had repercussions on the lines at the diesel and gasoline service stations,“ said Transportation and Industrialization of Hydrocarbons Deputy Minister Adams Hurtado.

Regarding the long lines of lorries and buses at pumps seeking diesel, the official also pointed out that additional volumes were fed into the market as demand was still high. ”The lines we had for gasoline have progressively diminished. Today we have almost no lines, in some service stations they have disappeared. And on the subject of diesel, we are working so that these additional volumes that we are dispatching will progressively reduce the number of lines,” he also noted.

National Hydrocarbons Agency (ANH) Director Germán Jiménez also reported the seizure of four tankers in the north of La Paz and more than 40 vehicles in Cochabamba for having loaded 30,000 liters in one week, exceeding their installed capacity. “The persons are already being prosecuted under Article 226 of the Penal Code, which establishes a deprivation of liberty of three to six years. We have been intensifying these controls, and, gradually, they have generated lines of vehicles waning down at gas stations,” he underlined.

YPFB's Commercialization Manager Joel Callaú expressed his confidence in the prompt normalization of the demand and commercialization of diesel, due to the additional shipments.

Also Tuesday, YPFB announced that 18 private companies had been authorized to import over 20 million liters of fuels for their own consumption, Callaú told reporters.

To date, 16 companies have been authorized to import diesel oil and another two for special gasoline, pursuant to ANH resolutions.

“Any natural or legal person who needs to make a direct import of liquid fuels for own consumption can do so. Once the no objection note is requested to YPFB, our company attends to the requests within 24 hours and starts the process with the ANH and Controlled Substances, to obtain the authorizations and the roadmap for the place where the fuel will enter and where it will go. So far more than one million liters have been imported by private companies,” Callaú added.

“Free importation has been enabled in the country for several months. More than two workshops were held in the departments of Santa Cruz and La Paz, to explain to businessmen how to import their fuel,” he also stated. “There are no limitations in the volumes to be imported, as long as it is for their own consumption.”

Procedures that previously required the intervention of notaries and judges are now carried out through an affidavit before the ANH, it was also explained.