‘SOL service stations doing well all week’ – General Manager

The two suppliers of gasoline on the local market were expected to have received supplies yesterday.{{more}}

Steve Francis, General Manager of SOL EC Ltd, said on Tuesday that a tanker was expected to arrive between Wednesday and yesterday Thursday, but he said that SOL service stations have been doing well all week.

“I did hear some announcements by our competitor Rubis that they are having a supply problem; as you can see, we have held up quite well over the weekend and presently,” Francis said.

“We do expect a tanker between tomorrow (Wednesday) and Thursday so we do expect fuel to be coming into the country before the week is ended,” he added.

“The situation currently is that Rubis is out of product and of course we have taken up the slack.”

But he reiterated the point that SOL was managing the situation well.

“There is absolutely no reason for anyone to panic,” Francis said, adding that with the other supplier experiencing supply problems, this had put some pressure on their pumps.

Imran Phillips, Sales representative of Rubis, was not so optimistic, however, saying that he was not in a position to confirm when a shipment of product would be arriving.

He was able to confirm that a shipment of LPG gas was expected to arrive on Wednesday and should have been back in circulation as of yesterday.

But there was no definite word on gasoline.

“Our hope is that we will be able to get gasoline in on Thursday,” Phillips told SEARCHLIGHT.

He said that the suppliers had declared “force majeur”, which Phillips explained was a get out clause in a contract.

“So, it’s like you supplying me with 100 apples a week, but then there is a clause in the contract and you cannot supply me with the amount and there is nothing I can do about it,” he explained.

“That is basically what has happened, so we have no recourse – put them in court nothing.”

Up to press time on Wednesday, Phillips confirmed that Rubis was completely out of gasoline, but had supplies of diesel.

A similar situation arose back in 2011 when SOL ran out of diesel and had limited supplies of gasoline.

The shortage stemmed from a labour dispute then at Petrotrin in Trinidad.

The situation was eventually alleviated following a decision made by RUBIS then to sell a quantity of a shipment of the product to SOL.(DD)