Fuel crisis in North Cyprus as queue returns to filling station amid fear over a new price hike

There was panic buying on Tuesday afternoon as citizens rushed to filling stations across the country to fill their tanks after the Gasoline Union's announced that they will close all stations by 5:00pm to protest. 

The Gasoline Dealers Association said it decided to take action to protest their inability to get fuel at the filling facilities, and announced that gas stations affiliated to the Union will be closed as of 5:00pm on Tuesday.

Speaking to YENİDÜZEN, the Vice President of the Gas Stations Association, Ertan Fidan, explained that the filling facilities did not provide them with fuel, and that they decided to close the stations at 5:00pm in response to this.  

“Especially the Turkish Cypriot Petroleum exhibits this attitude. We went with tankers of 3-40,000 liters, they gave us only 2,000 liters of fuel. Many gas stations reacted to this situation, so we decided to close as of 5:00pm. There will certainly be stations that will not comply, but most of them will be closed”.

Complaining that the facilities, which do not want to sell the fuel at a low price, put both the gas station and the public in a difficult situation, Fidan said that he expects this situation to be resolved by tomorrow.

Another report claims that the panic buying was due to a proposed hike in fuel prices which was supposed to come into effect by midnight on Tuesday.

On Tuesday morning, there were rumors that there will be fuel hike by Tuesday night. The uncertainty was caused by what the Gasoline Union described as inconsistent statement by major marketers, K-Pet and Al-Pet.

At the moment some stations are closed while those that are opened put a limit of fuel sales at 100 and 200TL. 

Current fuel are being sold at:
Unleaded 98: 17.58 TL
Unleaded 95: 17.33 TL
Euro Diesel: 18.07 TL
Kerosene: 17.02 TL