Beira, Mozambique, March 24, 2025 (Lusa) - The continuing shortage of fuel at petrol stations in the city of Beira, the capital of Sofala province, in central Mozambique, is worrying motorists and road hauliers, several sources told Lusa.
The problem mainly relates to petrol, but some filling stations are already starting to close completely, with taxi drivers and semi-collective hauliers admitting that they may stop operating.
On Monday, only two filling stations had fuel, including one owned by Portugal's Galp, but both were more than 15 kilometres from the centre of Beira, according to Lusa.
Dércio Vutuza, a motorbike taxi driver for more than two years, is one of those concerned about the situation in the city centre, where around two dozen petrol stations are out of fuel, saying he is totting up his losses while fearing a total supply breakdown.
"No-one is saying anything," he said of the authorities. "This is hurting us, because sometimes when we manage to buy at a petrol station we have to save up so we don't have to stop on the road while travelling with a passenger."
The concern is shared by Mateus José Vasco Manuel, also a motorbike taxi driver: "We taxi drivers can't do our jobs in peace. When we go to the pumps we only find diesel. The petrol we're looking for is non-existent and no one at the petrol stations can explain why the product is missing."
Some filling station managers have said that they expect to be refuelled at any moment, but they cannot pinpoint the cause of the supply problem.
Júlio Henriques, manager of a filling station located near the Beira Central Hospital, in the Macúti neighbourhood of the city, acknowledged that he was incurring heavy losses due to the lack of fuel.
"We made payments to our supplier on the fourteenth of February, but as of today, the twenty-fourth of March, another month has passed and we haven't received any petrol," he told Lusa. "And we've had no clarification about the non-supply. This is having a negative impact on our accounts."
Ismail Daúdo Ismail, who also manages a filling station, explained that he had received an explanation from his supplier that the lack of supply was due to cleaning work on the storage tanks in the port of Beira, which are now awaiting replacement.
Luís Manuel Gemo, who drives a passenger vehicle, said he was worried about the lack of petrol at most of the pumps in Beira, but that there were already shortages of other fuels, which prompts him to foresee a chaotic scenario.
"When we stop in the middle of the road, the customer abandons us without any payment and we have to leave the place pushing the motorbike for kilometres and at risk of assault if it's night," he said. "This situation is worrying us a lot."
JYJE/ARO // ARO.
Lusa
