Chile Forum

Groschi wrote:

zer0nz wrote:is this impacting the north? im planning on Pisco elqui - san juan - mendoza - santiago in 4 weeks time....

I can ask an Argie here in Pisco Elqui how the situation is on the other side.
But, its 200km from the last pump on their side to Pisco Elqui, so there must be fuel available, otherwise they wouldn't be here.

Checking the news in La Rioja province in Argentina, the message seems to be "if a station is out, there will be fuel there within a few hours." That would be consistent with what I was seeing in Sta Cruz province, where the station personnel were telling people to come back at xx o'clock. I didn't do a serious study of it but it seemed as though there was no deliberate creation of a shortage (as with the driver/labour actions causing shortages in past years) but that production and distribution was not keeping up with the seasonal demand. Sort of reminds us of the Santiago airport running low during the end of year period.

At some Sta Cruz stations this month there was no gasoline but adequate diesel. That seems to be consistent with holiday surge demand. In October when I was up there, there was usually gasoline with short lines, but diesel was in short supply. Even at that time, not at peak holiday demand, purchases were being limited. People were coping - there were no ugly scenes with people wailing at the pumps. And the shortages vary by location. In the town of Perito Moreno they have consistently had plenty of fuel and even accept credit cards. In Las Heras, no cards accepted at any station and shortages are common.

It's worthwhile noting that presidenta Cristina is fighting with the fuel supply companies at the moment, so from a political standpoint it is possible that there could be future actions that disrupt supply to stations. Even though Argentina is a petroleum producer, their domestic production and refining capacity is significantly below the national demand. If I remember correctly, during the last year Argentina had to import 9 billion Argie pesos' worth of fuel.

http://eldiariodelarioja.com.ar.webfst. ... p?id=84180
http://www.inforadiolibertad.com.ar/not ... icia=12714

patagoniax wrote:In Argentina, to buy dollars is often a statement of lack of confidence in the Argie currency. So the Argie government has placed controls on purchase of dollars.

It's also perhaps inadvertently a measure to discourage tourism.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-15532101

God forbid anyone might have a lack of confidence in the Argentine peso!