I'm working from home today because we can't get gas for our motorcycle. Here's the situation as I understand it (ie. pieced together from sources of varying reliability):
The government regulates the price of gas and about a week ago, increased the state's gas subsidies. This lowered the price of gas dramatically enough that all of the gas stations would have had to sell their gas at a loss. So they went on strike and stopped selling gas. Now we're all waiting for a new shipment of gas to come in at the lower price. The latest rumor, though, is that the boat en route to Haiti with gas is anpàn (broken down).
Gas is available at certain stations at certain times of day. The lines at these stations are hundreds of people long. People can't get to work and can't run their generators but even so, this seems to happen often enough that no-one is overly upset by it.
NOTE: It is unclear to me what the stations will do with their old, more expensive gas when the the new, cheaper gas comes in... And if they plan to sell it (because what else would they do with it?), why not just sell it now?
2 comments:
I don't understand it either! And Frantzo told us that people are making huge profits when they decide to sell the gas they have now. I'm just glad that people are choosing not to demonstrate by burning down the gas station, as Jean-Remy thought might be possible. Who's in charge here?
I also heard that Chavez, who has been providing gas subsidies to Haiti for a while, has pulled the subsidy, because he budgeted for $150/barrel oil for Venezuala's budget, but now that the price is waaaay down again, he can't afford the subsidy to Haiti, Cuba, Massachusetts, etc. Not sure how valid that is, but this is what I hear. Another big factor is the very active black market for fuel. I've heard stories of tanker trucks pulling up at gas stations, unannounced, saying "hey, you wanna buy some gas?" Wonder where they got it from ????? Ahhhhh Haiti.
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