BUSINESS NEWS
Minister blames industry for fuel crisis
Posted Wed, 14 Dec 2005
Minister of Minerals and Energy Lindiwe Hendricks has blamed the country's fuel shortage on the petroleum industry, and called industry leaders to an emergency meeting on Tuesday night to discuss the crisis.
According to her spokesperson, she will address a press conference on the crisis on Wednesday.
Addressing the National Assembly earlier on Tuesday, Hendricks
said: "Everybody knows the industry is to blame in this case. From
the government side, everything has been done to prepare us for the
start of cleaner fuel."
Meanwhile, BP said fuel supply problems were still being
experienced in some parts of the country.
Diesel was being "severely rationed" in the Cape Town area until
supply was received from the refinery. A consignment was also
expected to arrive by ship this week.
Supply of 95 octane and unleaded petrol in Cape Town had
improved, but delivery backlogs were being caused by increased
demand.
In Gauteng, there were no
immediate shortages of diesel or
petrol, but a backlog was causing delivery delays, the company said
in a statement.
In the Eastern Cape, East London was experiencing "severe diesel
supply problems". The product would be rationed until the situation
improved — probably around December 16. Petrol in the city also
remained in short supply, particularly the unleaded type.
In Port Elizabeth, unleaded petrol remained in short supply but
deliveries were expected overnight, BP said.
The problems arose when refineries restarted after switching
over to cleaner fuel technology.
This was aggravated by spiked demand following last week's fuel
price cut, and a "run" on service stations following reports of a
shortage of fuel at Cape Town International Airport.
Sapa
| 
