A TikTok user recently uploaded a video in which he uses a gas pump at a gas station as a drum kit. The joke has garnered thousands of likes, but has become a topic of serious conversation in recent days in Venezuela. The problems caused by the poor quality of the fuel produced by the state energy company PDVSA have worsened in recent months. Videos of burning cars and interviews with mechanics talking about an epidemic of broken gas pumps have proliferated as PDVSA is embroiled in a corruption scandal, which has led Nicolás Maduro’s government to carry out a purge of senior officials of the company
Oil Minister and Maduro protégé Tareck El Aissami was forced to resign and, according to the latest report from Attorney General Tarek William Saab, a vast anti-corruption operation launched by Venezuelan authorities has seized more than a thousand assets, including mansions, yachts, etc. planes and luxury vehicles, while 80 PDVSA officials have been arrested in 172 raids.
In the western oil-producing state of Zulia, at least 26 vehicles have caught fire so far this year, according to emergency services, including one belonging to the international NGO Caritas, which distributes humanitarian aid. Cases have also been registered in the east of the country and in Caracas. Meanwhile, fuel shortages are once again causing lines to stretch for miles at gas stations. There are also concerns that the gasoline being dispensed is dirty, has the wrong octane rating, or contains too much sulfur.
In an attempt to quell growing fears about gas quality, PDVSA released a video in which officials are seen giving citizens of the city of Maracaibo a whiff of fuel drawn from a tanker in a plastic bottle. The campaign has been incendiary and has sparked a series of memes and jokes about “gasoline sleepers”. The oil company also stated on its official television channel that the issue of burning cars is either due to leaks in its tanks, the use of defective spare parts or incorrect handling when refueling.
Oswaldo Rivas has been a mechanic for 20 years and has been surprised by the condition of the pistons on the vehicles brought to his shop. “The gasoline is causing a lot of piston knock and that eventually damages the engine,” says Rivas, who specializes in European cars. “There are bad fuel pumps everywhere. They burn out, you change them, then they go bad again and it’s hard to start cars first thing in the morning. You change the fuel filters and after a month they’re back equal: water and mud come out of them”.
Faulty fuel gauges, which show more or less gas than the tank holds, are also a common source of conversation. The sale of additives and different types of fuel, and even gallons of imported fuel such as ethanol to increase the octane level, has become widespread at gas stations. Oswaldo, for example, adds one designed for racing cars to his own vehicle: “I’d rather spend money on that and take care of my engine.”
In Venezuela, gasoline is part of everyday life in a way that other countries can barely imagine: at one time it was given as a gift or paid for with candy because there was no currency. It has been taboo to raise the price of gas after the social protests of 1989. For several decades, Venezuelans paid the equivalent of a few US cents per liter at subsidized gas stations, which have gradually disappeared. Today, filling up at a dollarized station can cost $20, and customers spend hours in line to do so, then drive away in fear that their vehicle will be the next to catch fire. In some states, fuel rationing and distribution programs based on license plate numbers have been established.
The current shortage is the culmination of a long crisis at PDVSA caused by years of mismanagement and corruption, which have brought the exemplary state entity to its knees. Venezuela’s oil industry has also been hampered by US sanctions, which have hampered the marketing of the country’s crude since 2019. The Maduro administration has turned to Iran for help to ease the crisis . Between 2020 and 2021, Iranian ships and fuel technicians arrived to repair refineries and boost oil production, which had fallen to historic lows. However, the industry is still struggling to match its historic production levels and it has taken nearly two years to engineer an increase from just under 400,000 to 700,000 barrels per day, the amount Venezuela currently produces.
“The gasoline we are producing is outside the specifications,” says Iván Freites, general secretary of the union of professionals and technicians of the Federation of Petroleum Workers, who went into exile two years ago when he was persecuted for publicly denouncing the shortcomings of the sector “The gasoline produced in the catalytic plant does not exceed the octane level of 82 and has a high sulfur content. Soda entrained during catalysis and high volatility causes pressure in the combustion system and causes it to ignite. Hence the damage to bombs and vehicle fires”, he says.
Also, Freites says, naphtha and olefins are added instead of the extra components that should be in the formula. “The poor quality of gasoline is also due to poor operating standards and the use of unqualified personnel.” Freites also states that the sediments accumulated in the storage tanks, once the stocks are depleted, are being removed and integrated into the gasoline that is distributed.
The union leader estimates that Venezuela currently produces about 80,000 barrels of gasoline a day, although domestic demand exceeds 110,000 barrels. Although the oil industry has shrunk to 20% of its capacity a decade ago, discount supply agreements with Caracas allies are still in place and a large part of the country’s fuel production is supplied to Cuba while, according to Freites, still providing the smuggling mafias with the means to run their operations.
As such, Cuba is also experiencing a huge shortage that forced President Miguel Díaz-Canel to cancel the country’s Workers’ Day parade on Monday. The Cuban president said a few days ago that the country receives only two-thirds of the fuel it needs from Venezuela, pointing to the problems facing Caracas as the reason why Maduro’s government cannot “fulfill its commitment” to maintain the stocked island up
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