Shafaq News- Baghdad
Iraq’s Integrity Commission on Friday formed field teams to monitor fuel distribution at filling stations, prevent smuggling, and ensure gasoline reaches citizens amid continuing shortages in Baghdad and several provinces.
The commission explained that the teams were tasked with monitoring fuel deliveries, overseeing distribution mechanisms, and verifying supply flows as part of measures to address the gasoline crisis.
The teams, composed of personnel from the commission’s Prevention and Investigations Directorates, began surprise inspections on Friday afternoon at several filling stations on both sides of Baghdad, Al-Karkh and Al-Rusafa. Inspectors reviewed gasoline supply procedures, matched quantities delivered from Oil Products Distribution Company depots with volumes sold to citizens, and checked storage and distribution mechanisms to verify that no smuggling or manipulation had occurred.
The commission confirmed that fuel supplies remained regular at the stations visited, particularly Al-Saydiya station, where demand for premium gasoline was higher than regular gasoline. It also noted relative congestion at premium gasoline outlets, while tankers continued supplying stations at regular rates.
In Al-Muthanna, the local government attributed the province’s fuel shortage to lower central allocations from the Oil Ministry over the past ten days, with reduced supplies affecting station quotas and caused congestion. It explained that it was following the file through meetings and direct communication with the Oil Ministry and the Oil Products Distribution Company, alongside field monitoring of supply and distribution inside the province.
Security and oversight agencies had been “instructed to monitor illegal fuel trading and attempts to exploit the shortage, and to take legal action against violators,” while the Oil Ministry was working to reinforce national gasoline reserves through imported shipments that would gradually increase supply and ease bottlenecks.
On June 4, the Oil Ministry acknowledged a gasoline supply gap after previously denying reports of a shortage. It attributed the shortfall to regional developments and the withdrawal of a foreign company from a key project at southern refineries, resulting in the loss of between 4 million and 5 million liters of high-octane gasoline per day.
Gasoline production currently stands at around 30 million liters per day, the ministry explained, while consumption rose to 34 million liters during the Eid Al-Adha holiday and pilgrimage season. Consumption reached a record 35 million liters on June 3, compared with a previous peak of 32 million liters per day before the recent regional tensions, particularly the US-Israeli war on Iran.
Baghdad and several provinces have witnessed long queues at filling stations since the first day of Eid Al-Adha, with motorists waiting for hours in several areas amid tight gasoline availability.