Eritrea blames power cuts on supplier’s shortage of oil

Mar 31, 2006 (ASMARA) — Eritrea blamed recent severe power cuts on a supplier’s shortage of lubricant oil, denying speculation the outages were caused by a lack of foreign currency to buy fuel to generate power.

“The suppliers of this lubricant oil informed all the countries who import it that for a short time there will be a shortage of it,” Information Minister Ali Abdu said.

“The ministry of energy has meticulously planned the distribution time frame of electricity in order not to affect the life and work of the citizens,” he told AFP. “In the meantime, the ministry is also engaged in a rural electrification project in 60 villages.”

In towns such as the capital Asmara power cuts were extremely rare before this month, but since then they have been occurring almost every day, usually in the evenings for around three hours.

Several diplomatic sources said the government was facing an acute foreign currency shortage and that the cuts could be linked to difficulties in financing the import of diesel to fuel the country’s main electric plant.

But Ali Abdu denied this.

“The cuts are not related to a shortage of diesel and they will not last a long time,” he said. “It is a temporary measure until the suppliers can provide more lubricant oil.”

Diesel in petrol stations in Eritrea has been rationed since last year. Several taxi drivers said that until last week they were allowed 100 litres (26 gallons) of diesel a month, but that since it had been reduced by half.

“I’ll have to buy the rest on the black market,” one taxi driver said.

(ST)