Brazilians face up to 4 hours of queue to refuel in Argentina

Shortly after Petrobras announced the mega-increase in fuel prices, which will come into effect at midnight this Friday (11), stations in Curitiba recorded long lines of cars. In Foz do Iguaçu, a city in Paraná located on the Triple Border, drivers cross the Argentine border to save money.

A resident of Foz, civil servant Carlos Mendes, 50, travels 24 kilometers to and from the nearest gas station in Argentina, located in Puerto Iguazu, to fill up his car and motorcycle.

He usually pays the equivalent of R$3.10 to R$3.20 for fuel, about half the price he would spend in Brazil. With the new adjustment, he calculates that the savings will be even greater.

Despite the economic advantage, filling up in Argentina is a time-consuming operation, as Puerto Iguazú receives more and more Brazilians. The queue to cross customs can reach three kilometers, equivalent to an hour of waiting; bottling at the gas station usually takes up to four hours.

“If [a gasolina] exceed R$ 7, there is nowhere to run. The search for the cheapest fuel generates long lines, but it is still worth it. I don’t know what magic the Argentine government does to have gasoline so cheap,” says Mendes, who crosses the border every 25 days on average.

In Cidade de Leste, on the Paraguayan side of the Triple Border, the lines of cars are shorter, but the economy is also reduced. Even so, the price of a liter of gasoline is 30% to 40% cheaper than in Brazil.

In Curitiba, gas station attendants reported that the movement began to increase shortly before noon this Thursday. In the middle of the afternoon, the queues reached an hour long at the busiest stations.

Retired taxi driver Nelson Hauptman, 89, faced a 50-minute traffic jam to fill half a tank of gas at a gas station on Alberto Folloni Street, in the Juvevê neighborhood, in the northern part of the capital of Paraná. “This war is not good for anyone,” he said.

Due to its location on a corner, the line of cars took up almost three blocks on Rua Alberto Folloni, one on Rua São Sebastião and doubled on Rua Eurípides Garcez do Nascimento, where it extended for another three blocks.

Civil engineer Nicole Rodrigues, 26, reached the bomb after 40 minutes of waiting. “I visit construction sites all day and drive a lot,” says she, who usually spends between R$600 and R$1,000 a month on fuel. With the readjustment, this expense can rise to R$ 1,200 per month.

At another station at the intersection of Rua Martim Afonso and Rua Brigadeiro Franco, in the Mercês district, in the central area of ​​the capital, the queue began to thicken in the middle of the afternoon with several cars occupying lanes on both lanes, making traffic difficult in the region.

Motoboy Darci Mascarello Filho, 31, ran to the pump as soon as he heard about the price adjustment. “I drive 150 to 200 kilometers a day in Curitiba and the metropolitan region and spend R$400 a month on gasoline. With the increase I will spend R$500. Obviously the freight will also increase”, he explains.

Paranapetro, a union of fuel resellers and convenience stores in Paraná, denounced that since last weekend, “some distributors have already started to increase sales prices for stations, before any official announcement of an increase in Petrobras, alleging greater entry of imported fuels into the market”.

“This is a frequent practice: some distributors usually pass on increases with great agility to the stations, often immediately”, said the entity in a note.