Uzbek Petrol Shortages “Artificial”

Although Uzbekistan has been experiencing petrol rationing and long queues at filling stations, analysts say the shortages are the result of profiteering rather than a genuine fuel crisis.

Information from various parts of Uzbekistan suggested there were still shortages at petrol stations as of August 16.

“The filling stations are serving 30 vehicles a day, and each owner can get only 10 litres of petrol at a time at the price fixed by the government,” said one observer in the northwestern Khorezm region.

Further south in Samarkand and Bukhara, car owners say filling stations had hung up signs saying “No petrol”.

The government has not commented on the petrol shortages, but some officials say off the record that the temporary problems are due to the beginning of the harvest season, for which large amounts of fuel have to be set aside. Second, Uzbekistan’s own oil production, from which petrol is refined, has been falling.

A third reason for the scarcity of petrol for retail could be the closure of the UzGazOil network of filling stations, which belonged to the Zeromax company wound up in May. (See: Uzbekistan: Mystery Surrounds Zeromax Collapse.)

Yet analysts in Uzbekistan say there is no real shortage of fuel.

“There are adequate oil products; in fact there’s a surplus,” Rovshan Nazarov, a commentator based in Tashkent said.

Even if domestic oil production is declined, refineries are able to import crude oil from neighbouring Kazakstan to keep their output up.

Nazarov believes the shortages have between caused by traders withholding fuel so that they can make a higher profit by selling it under the counter rather than at the government’s fixed rate.

Petrol prices in Uzbekistan are set by the government, with the average price currently running at about 1,300 soms a litre – worth about 80 US cents at the official exchange rate but much less at the black market rate. When sold unofficially, petrol is priced at 3,000 to 4,000 soms.

An economist in Tashkent confirmed that this ruse was in common use. Illicit traders were acquiring petrol from relatives with jobs in filling stations, and then selling it on the black market at a much higher price.

“Car owners are forced to queue up at night to fill up at the higher prices set by profiteers,” he said.

Nazarov said illicit petrol sales and the resulting shortages could only be eliminated if the government showed it had the will to stamp out the trade.

This article was produced as part of IWPR’s News Briefing Central Asia output, funded by the National Endowment for Democracy.