Sanctions lead to gas lines in Venezuela
Satellite image attests to mile-long queue in city
MARACAIBO, Venezuela — U.S. sanctions on oil-rich Venezuela appear to be taking hold, resulting in mile-long lines for fuel in the South American nation’s second-largest city, Maracaibo.
Some drivers said they’d had to wait almost 24 hours to fuel up, and people have been grabbing catnaps on the hoods of cars or in truck beds.
A satellite cruising over Maracaibo on Thursday captured pictures of cars lined up for a mile through the city to the pumps, according to by Maxar Technologies, a U.s.-based space technology company.
Russ Dallen, a Miami-based partner at the brokerage firm Caracas Capital Markets, said Sunday that stiff U.S. sanctions on top of decaying refineries have begun to hit home.
Venezuela doesn’t have the cash to import key ingredients to keep up production in a country with the world’s largest oil reserves, said Dallen, who estimated that the state run oil-firm PDVSA is producing 10 to 15 percent of its capacity.
The Trump administration this year sanctioned PDVSA in an effort aimed at driving President Nicolás Maduro from office, while throwing its support behind opposition leader Juan Guaidó.
The U.S. sanctions essentially cut off Maduro’s government from its Houston-based subsidiary Citgo, depriving officials of an estimated $11 billion in hard currency from exports this year.
In a recent flurry of diplomatic activity aimed at solving Venezuela’s crisis, European officials said they held intensive meetings over two days in Caracas with key players.
At about the same time, Maduro’s government and the opposition sent representatives to talks in Norway. Officials engaged in both efforts reported no breakthroughs.
The panic over shortages has crept into the capital, Caracas, leading to moderately long lines for the last three days at many stations.
In Maracaibo, angry drivers complained that police were profiting off their frustrations. Drivers said officers overseeing the lines allowed some to pay the equivalent of $3.60, more than half the monthly minimum wage, to cut into a shorter line while others waited to fill up their tank with subsidized fuel that costs less than a penny.