Shortage At the Pumps Friday Fault of the Station Owners, Recope Says
The Refinadora Costarricense de Petróleo (Recope) puts the blame for the dry tanks at gasoline stations squarely on the shoulders of the owners of the stations.

William Ulate Padgett, a distribution manager at Recope, confirms that many gasoline station owners did not make or reduced their regular purchases of gasoline in anticipation of lower prices the following day.

Gasoline prices fell ¢25 colones per litre of super, ¢24 colones per litre for regular and ¢19 colones per litre for deisel on Friday, following four hikes for 2005.

Padgett says that normally 1.3 million litres of regular gasoline is sold to gasoline stations on a dialy basis, but Thursday the sale dropped to 600.000 litres. In the case of deisel, 2.4 million litres are pumped out on a daily basis, but this last Thursday only 1.2 million litres was sold.

Gasoline station owners traditionally fill their tanks a day or two before a price hike to meet the demand by consumers and take advantage of the higher retail price on the cheaper cost gasoline for the following days after a price increase.

To make a little extra profit with the drop in price, many gasoline station owners waited until Friday - the day announced for the price reduction - to make their purchases, some running out of fuel in the early part of Friday with the higher than normal demand after the price drop.

Those affected most by the practice are the rural areas that are a distance from the Recope distribution centres. Those areas many not see gasoline stations tank filled until Monday as it takes time to reach the more remote areas like the southern zones.