As if something more was needed to blur the future, there are dark clouds on the fuel horizon. Not from Venezuela or Mexico, but, rather, these clouds are local in nature. Apparently, as reported in Hoy, the impending situation is the result of the agreement reached between the Minister of Industry and Commerce (MIC) and the fuel retailers. The agreement will put an end to the retailers’ continual complaints, and the commission charged with the issues could possible generate more heat than the recently resolved crisis over the Petro-Caribe Accords and the Shell Company. There are, indeed, serious financial considerations for the major fuel suppliers.
As it turns out, the Shell-Petro-Caribe issue only affects that company, but the agreement reached with the MIC will affect all the fuel distributors. According to sources, the fuel retailers have been losing billions of pesos over the years because the law concerning the sale of fuel is not applied. As it is “supposed” to work, Law 112-00 obliges wholesalers to make an adjustment the sale of fuel to retailers. The sale must be adjusted to a fuel at 15? C according to Resolution 64 of 1995 and Resolution 394 of 2002 that require the fuel to be measured with a precise yardstick. It has been pointed out that since the fuels arrive at the gas stations at a temperature that is generally above 30.6? C, and since the wholesalers do not make the required adjustment to 15? C, the retailers are always charged for more fuel than they actually receive. On average, a gasoline station loses 194 gallons for every 10,000 gallons of regular gasoline they receive. The numbers vary according to the type of fuel, but when one considers that the nation’s gasoline stations sell an average of 256,000,000 gallons of regular each year, and 58,000,000 gallons of premium, plus 250,000,000 gallons of diesel, there are major numbers at play here. The retailers are steadfast in their position and the Ministry of Industry and Commerce has promised to enforce the cited resolutions and the law.