Burma imposes fuel rationing two days after privatizing retail sales

Burma’s ruling military junta has imposed rationing of fuel sold at the country’s new private petrol stations, two days after it privatized its retail oil sector, according to a sales manager at one of the stations. The Ministry of Energy ordered the stations to limit sales to no more than 12 gallons of fuel per car per day from June 12 onwards. A sales manager from a Dagon International Ltd. private petrol station in Kyaukmyaung, Rangoon, said the Burma Petroleum Products Enterprise (MPPE), a department of the ministry, was failing to meet private petrol station fuel demand. The ministry sells petrol to the private stations for 2,350 Kyats (about US$2.35) per gallon and all private stations are required to resell to end users at the fixed price of 2,500 Kyats (about US$2.5) per gallon and 20,900 Kyats (about US$2.9) per gallon of diesel fuel. (June 18, 2010)