TIJUANA – In the midst of a diesel shortage that has left truck and bus drivers chasing meager supplies, Mexico's national oil monopoly has discreetly informed gas station owners that their gasoline sales will also be limited.
The city showed no signs yet of this supply problem on Monday. No stations had long lines and seemed to have their normal number of customers.
Pemex officials informed some station owners by telephone Monday morning of the change while others simply noticed their usual orders had been reduced, several owners said.
The shift supervisors and managers of the station on 2nd Street and Madero, on Revolucion Avenue, and on Salinas Boulevard in Tijuana; at a tourist stop and at Boulevard Juarez in Rosarito Beach said that they received only one of their three routine deliveries Monday, of 5,200 gallons each.
“Pemex tells us they're going to supply us conservatively, in a limited way, according to our sales record before the demand went up,” said one longtime gas station owner, who preferred to remain anonymous because of possible reprisals from Pemex for speaking out.
According to the Association of Gas Station Owners of Tijuana and Pemex, the demand for diesel fuel in the region has increased by more than 30 percent so far this year, when compared to 2007, while the demand for gasoline has grown by 25 percent.
Juan Jose Garcia, shift supervisor of the station at the tourist stop in Rosarito, said that Pemex cut his deliveries by two thirds on Monday. The reason he was given is a forthcoming restructuring of the distribution system.
His station had run out of both diesel and premium gasoline by 1 p.m., he said, while the demand for regular unleaded gasoline was growing at an unprecedented pace.
In one hour, the station sold 1,580 gallons of the 5,260 it had received earlier Monday.
Meanwhile, the diesel crisis showed no signs of easing. It started a week ago and led to truck and bus drivers waiting hours in line at gas stations for a chance to buy diesel, when they could find it at all.
Omar Millan Gonzalez writes for the San Diego Union-Tribune's Spanish edition, Enlace.
