Shafaq News- Nineveh

Private fuel stations in Iraq’s Nineveh province have rejected responsibility for worsening gasoline queues, blaming shortages on an imbalance in fuel allocations between private and state-run stations.

At a press conference, Faisal al-Akaidi, head of the Oil Sector Association in Nineveh, criticized government authorities for making “inaccurate assessments” without first reviewing the figures or considering concerns raised by private operators.

“Nineveh currently has about 420,000 officially issued electronic fuel coupons,” al-Akaidi noted, arguing that the demand generated by those coupons requires more than 12 million liters over three days, or more than 4 million liters a day.

Nineveh currently receives 3.3 million liters a day, leaving the province short of the fuel needed to meet that demand. Al-Akaidi called for the allocation to be increased in line with the number of electronic fuel coupons issued to residents.

He also pointed to the distribution of that fuel as a source of the shortages. Nineveh has 153 private fuel stations and 36 state-run stations, yet private stations collectively receive only about 900,000 liters a day from the province’s 3.3 million-liter allocation, while state-run stations receive 2.4 million liters.

The imbalance is compounded by delivery schedules. Private stations receive one shipment every other day, averaging no more than 17 shipments a month, while state-run stations receive four to five shipments a day. “Private stations therefore can run out of fuel within hours and close their pumps before the end of the day,” al-Akaidi cautioned.

Iraq’s Nineveh Governor Abdul Qadir Al-Dakhil on Saturday gave the Petroleum Products Distribution Department until Sept. 1 to resolve the province’s fuel crisis, as long queues persisted at gas stations across the provincial capital Mosul.

Reduced operating hours and early closures at privately run stations have pushed more motorists toward government facilities, while restrictions limiting purchases to registered coupon holders have drawn criticism from residents, who point instead to weak oversight and poor management of available supplies.

Read more: Cabinet moves to prevent fuel monopoly in Kurdistan Region