Diesel arrives in the Integrated North, but the lines and stopped machinery continue

More than 15 trucks, several flats and two combines are found unemployed in Minersone of the most productive towns in the Integrated North. The lack of diesel has silenced its engines.

While waiting for fueldrivers, pipe workers and machinists improvise wooden chairs and engage in long hours of conversation.

The time of not working generates economic losses and a delay in the harvestThis is what Julio César González, a sugarcane producer in Mineros, noted.

“The harvest It is just starting, but there are already problems due to the lack of diesel. I don’t know what will happen when in July and August the sector is at 100% harvest. These days the diesel shortage made truck owners and drivers sleep at the pumps to get your quota”González remarked

For Alberto Soria, a producer in the Saavedra area, the irregular supply of diesel has caused the harvesters working in their sugarcane fields are stopped generating economic losses, “the driver must be paid and the rental of the machinery must be paid.”

Óscar Alberto, president of the National Commission of Sugar Cane Producers of Bolivia (Concabol), maintained that the sector is in emergency despite the fact that during the night of June 5 he held a meeting with Yacimientos Petrolófilos Fiscales Bolivianos (YPFB) in which The state oil company committed to “increasing diesel shipping quotas, clarifying that the normal supply of fuel will be achieved in about five days.”

On the subject, Félix Cruz, general manager of YPFB Logistics, reported that more than 700 tanker trucks with diesel are headed to different storage plants of the state oil company, to supply the population’s demand for fuel.

“In gasoline we have increased volumes at the national level in more than 23% of what is normally managed. In diesel we are going to increase much more to normalize dispatches and avoid lines at service stations,” he explained.

Cruz reiterated that the conflicts generated on Monday and Tuesday caused a logistical gap on the issue of diesel, which “caused a delay in the arrival of the product at some service stations. However, we have Expanded dispatch hours nationwide in all plants,” he added.

Lesly Lanza, Santa Cruz District director of the National Hydrocarbons Agency (ANH), indicated that already the logistics problem was overcome (due to the blockades) and that together with YPFB the supply of diesel is being guaranteed.

“It is happening priority to the agricultural sector, to public transportation and to the municipalities,” Lanza said.

Line at the pumps

In a tour of the Warnes, Saavedra and Mineros pumps, it was possible to see that the lines of trucks loading cane, buses and other vehicles that use diesel continued.

“I have been waiting in line for two days to load about 700 bolivianos. With that I will be able to make about four trips taking cane from Minero to the Guabirá sugar mill. Waiting in line for so many hours is a huge waste of time and money.. Since I am a driver, the one who loses is the owner of the truck,” explained José Romero, a transporter from the Integrated North who has been dedicated to this activity for 10 years and who notes that in the last two years The diesel shortage at the beginning of the harvest is becoming more and more noticeable.

Don Raúl, another transporter who already has been in line for about 48 hours, regrets that every time the harvest begins, diesel “begins to disappear and create supply problems in a sector that should have guaranteed fuel supplies until September”.

“The Ministry of Hydrocarbons promised to guarantee that not a single drop of diesel would be missing, but we have barely started the harvest and the fuel is already lacking. “That harms the entire productive chain of Bolivia,” he said.

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