Gasoline shortages have affected about 120 filling stations in Puebla during the past week, says an industry association.

The Gas Station Owners’ Association of Puebla and Tlaxcala (GUEPT) said the supply of fuel from Pemex has been irregular since August 30.

The association said it has been told that the disruption has been caused by power cuts at Pemex’s storage and distribution center in Puebla.

As a consequence, tanker truck drivers have been unable to fill up and make their regular deliveries. About 25 gas stations were forced to close on Thursday because they completely ran out of both regular and premium fuel.

Power supply at the storage center was restored at 11:00am on Friday but according to GUEPT president Luz María Jiménez Almazán, it will be some time until gas stations’ reserves are replenished.

“They told us that electricity supply was reestablished but the tanker truck backlog is already 300 trips and that’s affecting the entire state of Puebla,” she said.

Jiménez said the association informed Pemex and government departments about the situation but received no response.

“We haven’t received a single response from Pemex or the secretariats of Energy and the Interior and consequently we filed a complaint with [consumer protection agency] Profeco,” she said.

Jiménez called on the Puebla government to intervene to ensure that full service at gas stations is reestablished as soon as possible and adverse effects on the economy and consumers are avoided.

The association president explained that gasoline shortages of varying severity have plagued Puebla throughout the year.

“The shortage of gasoline has been intermittent, sometimes it’s very serious, sometimes less serious but it’s an undeniable problem throughout the whole year.”

Source: Animal Político (sp)