Airports and stations have difficulties to renew fuel stocks

The undemocratic Bolsonarist acts that have blocked Brazilian roads since Sunday (30) are already starting to cause difficulties in supplying fuel to airports and gas stations across the country. The protesters do not accept the defeat of Jair Bolsonaro (PL) to Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT).

Industry people told the Sheeton condition that the airports of Viracopos, in Campinas (SP), and Congonhas, in São Paulo, have stock to operate only until the end of this Tuesday (1st), but that, if they do not receive more fuel, they will not will be able to operate normally on the All Souls holiday, this Wednesday (2).

They depend on the Paulínia refinery (SP), which is unable to send trucks due to road blocks. In Viracopos, the cargo terminal, where general items for the whole country leave, has also been inoperative since the dawn of this Tuesday, due to the blockages.

“Airline estimates show that, if the current scenario continues, during the holiday the sector may suffer from fuel shortages”, said in a note to Abear (Brazilian Association of Airlines).

The association says that it made itself available to help and alerted the authorities to the damage also to the transport of cargo, including organs for transplant, for example.

The fuel sector, in turn, complains about the government’s lack of coordination to solve the problem, which also affects gas stations across the country. There are reports of service stations without products in at least five states and the Federal District.

In others, stations report restrictions to purchase products with distributors, which would be limiting volumes to try to preserve their stocks. The main difficulty lies in the logistics of anhydrous ethanol, which is mixed with gasoline and transported mainly by road.

“We hope that these manifestations of a political nature, provoked by a minority, can end soon to avoid inconvenience to the entire population”, said, in a note, the president of the union of posts in the Federal District, Paulo Tavares.

In addition to the Federal District, unions in the three states of the South region, Minas Gerais and Pará reported that there are already gas stations without fuel.

Rio de Janeiro also sees difficulties with the delivery of anhydrous ethanol and restrictions on deliveries by distributors. Delivery of the biofuel depends on the Presidente Dutra Highway, one of the first to be blocked.

The president of the local union, Manuel Fonseca, says, however, that there are still no reports of lack of products at gas stations in the state.

In Mato Grosso, the local gas station union also accuses the receipt of smaller quantities than those requested from the distributors, due to the issue of maintaining safety stocks.

The union that represents the stations in Rio Grande do Sul, Sulpetro, says that there is no systemic problem, but that there are reports of stations without products. The entity sees a risk in the renewal of inventories when the highways are fully released, since the stations will need to buy large volumes.

The entity’s president, João Carlos Dal’Aqua, says that the race for positions generated by the fear of shortages helped to amplify the problem. “The stations, in general, already have low stocks and this caused a difficulty”, he says, warning of difficulties even with the reopening of the roads.

“There is no way for a gas station to immediately fill its tanks, both for a matter of tanking and for financial reasons”, he says. “If he sells a lot, he will need more working capital, because he buys fuel in cash and sells on installments”.

In São Paulo, Sincopetro (Petroleum Derivatives Retail Trade Union) says that it has not yet received “significant volume” of complaints about lack of products, but that it follows the situation with “great concern”.

“The risk of shortages is linked to the lack of circulation of the trucks that deliver the products to the gas stations. If there is an unblocking, we should not have more serious shortages,” he says in a note.

Federation that brings together dealer unions, Fecombustíveis has not yet taken stock of the situation. But, in a note released this Tuesday (1st), it asks for the release of the roads “as soon as possible” so that the supply is normalized.

“Fecombustíveis understands that the right to demonstrate cannot be ahead of common sense, and may harm the country’s economy and the freedom of citizens who are in transit to come and go,” says the entity.

Executives of fuel distributors interviewed by the Sheet they complain about the lack of action by the government, both in releasing the roads and in defining a plan to accelerate the resumption of supply.

Unlike the 2018 truck drivers’ strike, for example, no crisis group was created to discuss alternatives to speeding up or prioritizing deliveries.

Interlocutors in the sector see the situation as especially worrying, because the acts, which do not have a clear leadership and also involve the population around the highways, can intensify on the holiday.

The assessment is that just one speech by Bolsonaro, acknowledging his defeat and asking for the unblocking of the roads, would put an end to the strikes.

According to reports, emissaries from the sector have already sought out governors of the most critical states and the federal executive.

According to people in the sector, they told the Sheetthe risk of shortages is greater in the states of Santa Catarina and Rio Grande do Sul — and, in the former, there are already reports of lack of fuel in some cities in the interior.

On social networks, videos of queues at gas stations in different parts of Brazil are also circulating, especially in these two states. There are at least 300 fuel trucks stopped by roadblocks across the country, people working in the area estimate.

There is also concern with the Midwest, and, to a lesser extent, with São Paulo.

The IBP (Instituto Brasileiro do Petróleo e Gás), which brings together the largest fuel distributors in the country, has not yet officially expressed itself on the subject.

Minaspetro wants to avoid “race” to bombs

Minaspetro (Union of Retail Trade of Petroleum Derivatives in the State of Minas Gerais) released a note this Monday (1) stating that gas stations in some regions lack fuel due to the stoppage of highways.

At the same time, however, the entity asks the population not to make a “race for gas stations”, because, according to the union, this is what can worsen the shortage of stocks.