CARACAS • Venezuelans formed long lines yesterday to buy gasoline in a major provincial city after outages at a refinery prompted rare worries of supply shortages in one of the world's largest oil exporters.
Drivers in an area of at least 800,000 residents in and around the central city of Barquisimeto have lined up to fill their tanks for up to 90 minutes in lines tens of cars long since late on Tuesday, residents said by telephone.
Gasoline supplies in the Opec nation are a sensitive political issue for Venezuelans who are used to filling up cars for less than $2.
Leftist President Hugo Chavez underpins his popularity by lavishing oil income on the majority poor. But the opposition says he sells crude cheaply to allies such as Cuba and has stacked the state oil company with supporters with little industry experience.
Venezuelan state oil company PDVSA restricted the sale of fuel to gasoline stations because of problems at the 135,000 barrel per day El Palito refinery that usually supplies the area, Diana Santiago, the head of the local gasoline chamber, said.
A union worker at El Palito said the refinery had not restarted after a power outage last week, which he said caused the supply problems. The lines stretched from gas stations into city streets disrupting traffic, residents said. Some stations ran out and many drivers lined up before dawn to obtain fuel in a country that is one of the largest US oil suppliers.
"People are really nervous. There are too many lines and many stations are running out and closing," said Elimir Hernandez, a truck driver who waited more than an hour for fuel.
Last week, PDVSA said it took key units at the El Palito refinery offline due to a power outage.
The company has still not restarted the units, a union official with knowledge of the operations said. A PDVSA refinery official declined to confirm if the units were online, although it has guaranteed supplies would be maintained. There have been repeated accidents, technical failures and power outages disrupting oil operations in the last few years.
In an emergency arrangement to deal with the lines, about 250 trucks were headed to the Barquisimeto area to distribute gasoline, Army Gen Miguel Angel Garcia said. Rumors stirred residents' fears of shortages and triggered nervous buying in the city, which is one of the nation's largest and lies on a major commercial transport route, he added at a news conference.
Concerns over the industry's management have intensified this year. Chavez decreed the nationalization of multibillion dollar foreign-run projects, forcing major US companies Exxon Mobil and ConocoPhillips to leave a country with some of the largest reserves outside the Middle East.
The last time there was any major supply interruption was in 2003 during an oil strike aimed at toppling Chavez. But Venezuelans often also recall deadly riots sparked by a gasoline price hike in 1989.
PDVSA said officials were not immediately available despite repeated telephone calls over several hours seeking comment on the lines yesterday.
But a local newspaper cited a company official guaranteeing gasoline supply throughout the South American country.
