Swift action from Saudi Aramco has resolved the diesel shortage problem that had plagued Riyadh for the past week, Al-Riyadh Arabic daily reported Thursday. The quantities of diesel being supplied to gas stations have been multiplied and the long lines outside of gas stations have subsided. However, gas station workers are worried that the crisis will reemerge during the upcoming summer weeks when demand for diesel peaks. Economists say the problem arose because Aramco is the sole distributor of petroleum products in the country and have called upon Aramco to set up a publicly-traded company and task it with distributing fuel all over the Kingdom. These demands come amid claims by investors in the transportation sector that the Nitaqat program has forced transportation companies to fire expatriate workers, thereby creating a shortage of drivers in the market. Fahd Juma, an economist, suggests that Aramco construct large fuel centers near the Kingdom's major cities so that gas stations can refuel by paying distributors to deliver fuel for them. He also suggested setting up a publicly-traded company for this purpose. “Aramco denied that there is a diesel shortage and affirmed that it has sufficient supply of diesel. This means one thing: The problem lies in transportation. The product is not being delivered on time to end clients,” said Waleed Al-Sibaee, an analyst, who also attributed the problem of transportation to the Nitaqat Program. “Nitaqat forced transport companies to fire expatriate drivers and look for Saudi ones. They obviously haven't been very successful and the Ministry of Labor should listen to the problems of transport companies some of which sustained great losses and might be forced to shut their doors permanently,” he added.
