BURAIDAH – Rural areas of the Kingdom are facing an increasing problem of diesel shortage which is threatening their ability to produce and irrigate crops properly.
The problem originally confined to the Taif region has now spread to Al-Jouf and Hail regions.
Saleh Al-Shayea Al-Krei’, owner of an agricultural project in Al-Jouf, said the filling station in Al-Jouf is unable to supply diesel distributors with sufficient quantities, as it has decreased the quantities granted to farmers by 60%.
Chairman of the Agricultural Committee in Al-Jouf Region Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Ghali Mubarak Al-Fehaiqi, said an emergency meeting would be held this week to discuss the increasing fuel shortages with farmers and to suggest solutions.
Assistant Director General of Agricultural Affairs for the Al-Jouf region, Khamees Anan Al-Daghmani said farmers are suffering because of fuel scarcity in the region.
He said a continued fuel shortage could cause massive agricultural losses to farmers if they are unable to pump water using diesel pumps or transport their produce.
Close to 32,000 hectares of land is at risk.
- Wait a minute! Is this Saudi Arabia we talking about? Why is there a diesel shortages? Isn’t Saudi one of the biggest crude oil producer in the world? I sense a shiver just went down my cold spine…My own speculation will be the refinery bottle-neck somewhere as demand grows too quickly to be able to refine crude oil to diesel for their own domestic consumption.
Other scary speculation is Saudi may be exporting more then they can afford to based on their “contracts” and “Committed” amount during the OPEC meeting…inevitably causing shortages in their own kingdom.
Another guess is once the peak oil production of all the aging oil fields had been reached…there are no way to increase the production fast enough to meet local demand.
Either way, this news may just be the tip of the iceberg for a major story in the energy world.
See Also:
- India: Diesel shortage due to increase in demand
- Major power shortage foreseen in China
- New Zealand faces Power Crisis!
- Power crisis starts hitting Batam; fear investors may move offshore
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