Legal fixes for Fuel Shortages

The fuel shortage last week caught the country by surprise. There were long lines for about 72 hours while Guyanese waited for supplies which the Government of Guyana (GOG) announced were delayed due to logistical issues. The focus of discussion has been on the fact that it is over. I want to shift the discussion to – what will happen if there is a next time? Quite frankly, given the state of international relations there may be a next time. While Guyana can’t do anything about wars and slowdowns in international trade and logistics, we can put a legal framework to ensure we are better prepared for the future.

There are two main safeguards which can be included in legislation to cushion the effects of global supply and logistics issues.

Firstly, we can implement petroleum stockpiling provisions either in the Guyana Energy Agency Act or in a new piece of legislation. The shape of such legislation would have to require importers to ensure a certain number of days stockpiles of petroleum products, thus offering some security against global trade and logistics shocks. Legislation like this already exists across the European Union (EU). An EC Directive in 2019 required EU member state to put measures in place, the Netherlands has the Petroleum Product (Stockpiling) Act. The effect of the directive and national legislation is to require each member to stockpile enough fuel for 90days of consumption based on last year’s recorded consumption. What is impressive is that at the end of each month the stockpile information is sent to Eurostat’s website and uploaded for public consumption.

Secondly, Guyana can put in place fuel rationing provisions in existing or new legislation this would set out in a crisis, limits on daily limits on fuel for vehicles. There would have to be criteria depending on vehicle usage, such as personal use, commercial use and government or emergency service use. For it to work the law would have to require a scheme of registration during a crisis and having to provide a QR code referring to specific vehicles details which would allow tracking to ensure that the system can be enforced.

Whatever course the GOG chooses to take, there can be no doubt with global relations unstable as they are moves to address fuel shortages need to be made without delay.