TIJUANA – Mexico's national oil monopoly began to ration the supply of gasoline in the Baja California region yesterday, much as it has limited diesel deliveries for several weeks.
Joaquín Aviña, president of the Association of Gas Station Owners of Tijuana, which represents 157 stations, said Pemex told the stations it would supply them according to their sales from January to March, without taking into account current demand.
He said that sales during that period, normally a slow time, were far below what they are now.
“This short-sighted approach could generate chaos similar to what we're currently experiencing with diesel,” Aviña said.
Aviña said demand for diesel has gone up 36 percent in the first six months of this year, compared with the same period of 2007, while gasoline sales spiked 25 percent. Pemex has confirmed those numbers.
Some 20 gas station owners held a closed-door meeting yesterday morning with Arturo Gómez, the commercial division chief at the Pemex plant in Rosarito Beach. He told them gasoline was being rationed because of distribution problems, two owners said afterward.
However, Aviña said Pemex is taking a protectionist position to force the region's gas stations to stop selling subsidized gasoline and diesel to drivers from the United States.
The Mexican government heavily subsidizes fuel to protect transportation from international market forces, which have driven up fuel prices in the United States to unprecedented levels.
According to Mexico's consumer protection agency, it's against the law to limit or discriminate in the sale of products.
The shift supervisors and managers of several stations in Tijuana and Rosarito Beach said they received only one of their three routine deliveries yesterday, of 5,200 gallons each.
Juan José García, shift supervisor of a station in Rosarito Beach, said Pemex cut his deliveries by two-thirds yesterday. The reason he was given is a forthcoming restructuring of the distribution system.
His station had run out of diesel and premium gasoline by 1 p.m., he said, while the demand for regular unleaded gasoline was growing at a rapid pace.
Omar Millán González is a contributor to the Union-Tribune's Spanish-language newspaper, Enlace.
