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Written By: Fares Anam
Article Date: Aug 19, 2008 - 1:12:18 AM
Sana’a citizens queuing for gas cylinder exchange
The crisis witnessed by the domestic markets for the past four days with the lack of domestic gas was the result of a technical malfunction in one of Safer refinery laboratories. “This ultimately led to a decrease in gas volumes for the domestic market”, said Najeb Al-Awaj, Deputy Executive Director General of the Yemen Gas Company.
Al-Awaj stressed that the company controlled the bottlenecks that occurred over the past few days which were due to the decline of domestic gas quantities in local markets. He pointed out that the refinery maintenance and stabilization in production capacity is estimated at around 21,500 barrels per day.
“The laboratory work has resumed production since nine o'clock Thursday morning, and by next week the domestic market will be saturated with domestic gas.” he said.
As this article is being written, people are lining up in front of gas stations in order to get gas cylinders. "It is tough these days to get one gas cylinder due to their scarcity in the domestic markets and the increase of people demanding the same thing makes the situation a problem that affects all families," said Yahya Ali Dabes, a consumer and one of the people lining up in front of a gas station. The lack of gas cylinders is taking place only a few weeks before the Holy month of Ramadan begins.
"Every year before Ramadan there is a crisis like the one taking place these days. I am sure that there is a terrible plan to worsen people’s lives behind this crisis," said Dabes.
At the meeting of the Security and Safety Committee held on Saturday under the chairmanship of the Deputy Interior Minister and Chairman of the Security and Safety Committee, Saleh Hussein Al-Zarori, a disturbing report was submitted by the Yemen Gas Company. The report stated that more than 4,144,660 damaged gas cylinders have been distributed to the secretariat of the capital and other governorates. Fortunately, these damaged gas cylinders were not exchanged among citizens, according to the report.
The Committee recommended withdrawing the damaged cylinders from domestic markets and stated that it will compensate their owners in order to preserve citizen’s safety. A decision was made obliging the Yemen Gas Company to design new gas stations and cylinder models .It also recommended composing a map of gas stations and promoting the sale of updated gas cylinders by holding expositions selling updated models. The Committee also approved the formation of a subcommittee which is to report early next week on the issue of updating the gas stations located in the capital and in Sana'a governorate. The Committee also demanded a detailed report on the current gas cylinder stores and sales. In addition there is to be a stop on importing cylinders for six months until an official count of existing gas cylinders has been obtained.
More than 15 million gas cylinders were found in all provinces, 22 of which were found to be imported from various countries. The imported items were not subjected to the necessary scrutiny and quality specifications established locally and globally.
In Aden the diesel shortage in the domestic markets caused a crisis. "Diesel shortage in the governorate will be solved and diesel will be available in the coming 24 hours," Adnan Omar Al-Jafari, Governor of Aden, told Saba news Agency.
Governor Al-Jafari paid a visit to the Yemeni Petroleum Company branch in Aden on Sunday morning. On his visit he learned of the measures the company had taken to end this crisis by allowing for the pumping of 600,000 liters of diesel to fuel stations. The company has sent a number of supervisors to some fuel stations to control the distribution in the governorate.
