Liberia's Ministry of Commerce’s newly announced reduced prices for petroleum products in the country have rather been met with what many in the public have termed as an artificial shortage of gas on the local market.
The new price ceiling released by the Ministry took effect on November 28, 2012. In a news release issued yesterday in Monrovia, the Ministry announced that in collaboration with the management of the Liberia Petroleum Refinery Company, (LPRC), it has made reduction in the prices of petroleum products on the local market.
The new price ceiling reduces gasoline price by US$0.20 and diesel (fuel oil) by US$0.10 cents. The change in the current price was precipitated by the global trend, the Ministry said.
The Commerce Ministry then put the new wholesale price for gasoline at US$4.05 and detail at US$4.33. The new retail price set forth by the Commerce Ministry for gasoline is US$4.23 or LRD$310.00 and US$4.51 or LRD325 for diesel.
The Ministry then pledged to closely monitor the implementation of these reduced prices for petroleum products to counter any arbitrary hike in the pump price locally.
However, the announcement was rather met with what many in the public have described as an artificial shortage of gas on the local market.
Dozens of commercial motorcyclists and cab drivers queued up at the various gas stations across Monrovia on last Tuesday in search of gasoline to fuel their vehicles for the day.
But the common response among most of the pump attendants was “no gas”. By 11:45 a.m. yesterday, the only version with gasoline, a Total service station in Congo Town, compelled drivers to pump no more than US$10 worth of gas into their vehicles.
“Please help me. US$10 worth of gas will not help me. My tank is completely empty,” cried a driver.
But the pump attendant’s response was clear: “I can’t give you more than $10 worth of gas.”
By 3:00 p.m., the situation had relaxed a bit with service stations around Monrovia able to purchase above the restrictive US$10 price.
This situation did not only begin on Tuesday. It started long before the weekend, in spite of the new price ceiling set forth by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry.
Anonymous sources hinted to me the shortage is a resultant effect of some technical difficulties currently experienced by the LPRC.
“They have some problem with their meter, but they are working on it,” the source said.
However, in a statement issued yesterday in Monrovia, the LPRC vehemently denied any artificial shortage of gas on the market.
“There is no shortage of petroleum products on the market. There are enough products on the market to serve the entire country,” the petroleum company said. It also described the reduction in pump price of gasoline and other petroleum products as “good news.”
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