After service stations and agricultural employers reported a widespread shortage of fuel, the Argentine government announced this Friday that it had agreed with the oil companies to import ten ships with hydrocarbon and increase the refining capacity of the refineries.
The announcement by the Ministry of Energy, led by Flavia Royon, followed the meeting this Friday with the country's main fuel operators -YPF, Trafigura, Panamerican Energy and Raízen- and then with the service station unions. , according to spokespersons for the portfolio.
The axes of the meeting were a recent increase in demand of up to 15% compared to 2022, due to greater tourist activity and the agricultural sector, and "unusual consumption" in some provinces during the weekend of October 22, the day of the presidential elections, "encouraged by the expectation of a devaluation" of the currency.
Royón and the companies agreed to import ten fuel ships, which "technical stops will be completed in the next ten days" and "the refining capacity of the country's main refineries will be increased."
"In the coming days, the shortages will be resolved," indicated the spokespersons for the Ministry of Energy, which seeks to give "peace of mind to the population that there will be no shortages and discourage speculative maneuvers."
Long lines of cars to load fuel is the postcard in Argentina at service stations that cannot meet the increase in demand, due to the distortion of local prices, the lack of foreign currency to import the missing liquid and the fast export to the residents of neighboring countries.
"In recent times, supply problems have been worsening in the service station networks of all oil companies," warned a statement from the Confederation of Hydrocarbon and Related Trade Entities of the Argentine Republic (Cecha), which requested the government "arbitrate the measures" that "allow oil companies to regularize the supply of service stations."
"What began with scattered stock shortages in specific regions or areas has quickly spread with greater intensity to all products, throughout the country, generating anxiety in our activity and complications for consumers," Cecha warned.
Two of the largest agricultural employers' associations in Argentina had already denounced this Thursday the problems in fuel supply and warned that this will affect the production of the sector, which in recent months has already suffered a severe blow due to the drought.
The Argentine Rural Society (SRA) indicated in a statement that there have been shortages of diesel - a key fuel for agricultural machinery -, establishment of sales quotas and dispersion of fuel prices and a greater degree of shortages in border areas. , where demand is high due to lower costs in Argentina in relation to neighboring countries.
Argentine Rural Confederations (CRA) indicated that in a country that manages its logistics mainly by truck freight and with a purely agricultural productive matrix, the lack of a basic input such as fuel "generates productive chaos, be it in planting, distribution and supply of food.
