The president of the Dominican Petroleum Refinery, Amaury Justo Duarte confirmed rumors of payment difficulties that are affecting the availability of fuel in the Dominican Republic and now could affect vehicular transport. Justo Duarte told Hoy newspaper yesterday that there is not yet a problem with local inventories of gasoline and diesel, but he said payments in US$ have not been regularly received so as to maintain an adequate flow of supply ships. He confirmed some ships have had to be delayed. Sources indicate that the Refinery is requiring cash payments, and not accepting letters of credit from the government. Early this morning, gasoline stations were filling up tanks, while later morning news stories report on long lines in the stations. The long lines are primarily motivated by news that the price of fuel will go up significantly tomorrow as a consequence of the marked drop in the value of the peso this week.