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Africa Moyo

There should be a marked improvement in the supply and availability of petrol from today after the scheduled maintenance at Beira has been completed.

Zimbabwe Energy Regulatory Authority (Zera) chief executive officer Mr Eddington Mazambani told The Herald yesterday that the situation should return to normal by Tuesday at the latest.

This comes as a number of services stations in Harare and some towns have been without petrol for a couple of days, with panicky motorists sharing their experiences on social media.

Said Mr Mazambani: “The shortage of petrol is a temporary one occasioned by logistical challenges which have been attended to.

“From tomorrow (today) the situation should improve, getting back to normal by Monday or Tuesday.”

Permanent Secretary for Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Services Mr Nick Mangwana tweeted today confirming that petrol supplies will normalise soon.

“There has been a disruption in the fuel supply chain due to a scheduled maintenance program at Beira.

“This is now complete and we expect the petrol backlog to start clearing from the end of today into Monday and Tuesday. The inconvenience to the public is noted and regretted.”

Fuel supplies have been generally stable since Government allowed companies with free funds to import the commodity and sell in a currency of their choice.

But realising that most fuel stations had opted to sell in foreign currency, including those that received money from the forex auction, President Mnangagwa recently ordered that there be service stations selling in local currency to cushion people without access to forex.

Government has already approved a US$15 million facility to pay for imports of fuel to be sold in local currency.

Zera has since identified 57 service stations across the country that will sell fuel in local currency in the initial phase.