Venezuelan drivers will need to schedule appointments in order to purchase gasoline from retail outlets selling government subsidized fuel, oil minister Pedro Tellechea told Argus on Friday.
The subsidized gasoline is still inexpensive, at 2¢/liter, and plentiful, Tellechea said, despite drivers often waiting in line for hours for the fuel. But under a plan to modernize the stations selling the subsidized gas with new pumps and flat screen monitors, an appointment system will soon be required for purchases.
Venezuela raised gasoline prices to 50¢/liter in 2020, to what the government has called a "international price," but then set aside stations meant just for members of the ruling party and other groups, where they could buy gasoline for much less. Today about 60pc of the country's 1,800 retail gas stations sell at unsubsidized prices.
Half of Venezuela's gas stations will be refurbished this year, with pumps that can fill up an SUV in 20 seconds, supply 700 vehicles a day, and accept all forms of payment, Tellechea told reporters at a model station in Altamira, east Caracas, on Friday.
"There aren't in South America gas stations right now just like the ones you are seeing today," he said. "Drivers won't have to wait in line at subsidized stations, they will have their appointments programmed to the second."
Tellechea said Venezuelans are now using 95,000 b/d of gasoline but he declined to say how much is being produced domestically. Tallecha said oil production was growing, reaching "above 950,000 b/d" on Friday, but that included about 40,000 b/d of condensates and natural gas liquids.
