The Lebanese fuel crisis has reached its worst in the past few days. With it, an absurd increase in the price of gasoline in the black market was recorded – sometimes reaching 800,000 LBP for one tank.
Queued lines in front of gas stations have become significantly longer recently as finding fuel became a near impossibility. More stations have closed down, including Coral that announced the shutdown of all its stations in Lebanon earlier this week.
This comes as fuel importing companies are not supplying anything due to the Central Bank’s decision of not opening new credits on the 3,900 LBP/Dollar exchange rate.
As a result of the deteriorating conditions, black market fuel exchange surged. Sellers exploited the situation and the dire need and demand for gasoline to charge ten times the actual price.
A regular gasoline buyer who gets gallons from the black market told The961 that a seller tried selling him a tank for 800,000 LBP yesterday in South Lebanon. He also said that the seller is ironically a member of the Lebanese Internal Security Forces.
People need gasoline to commute to work and survive. This makes them desperate enough to buy the commodity at any price available instead of its original 77,500 LBP.
The Lebanese army has been conducting frequent raids to bust stored fuel and has seized millions of liters of it but it is simply not enough.
