Acute fuel crisis in South Darfur capital

The South Darfur capital Nyala is suffering from an acute fuel crisis with long queues of vehicles in front of petrol stations on Friday.
Owners of petrol stations said that the fuel stocks are completely depleted. They could not provide a reason for the crisis, a car owner told this station.
Since early last year, Radio Dabanga has received reports about a scarcity of fuel from various parts of the country.
The Minister of State for Oil announced in a press statement on January 15 that his Ministry decided to step-up the production of petrol from 2,700 cubic metres to 4,500 cubic metres to meet the increased consumption needs. He said that the daily quantities of diesel pumped by the Ministry covers the need in the country “by more than 1,000 tons per day – which means that fuel is abundant in the petrol stations.”
Economists have predicted that Sudan will face a serious fuel crisis following the temporary shutdown of the Khartoum refinery in early March for maintenance.
They have warned as well for a continuing increase in the US Dollar rate on the parallel forex market as the scarcity of hard currency at the banks in the country forced the government to buy Dollars on the black market as well, for the purpose of purchasing fuel.