Severe fuel crisis in regime-held areas | Long lines of cars queue at gas stations, and Syrian pound’s value hits new record low

With the fuel crisis deepening in the Syrian regime-held areas, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights has monitored a severe crisis in public transport in all major city centres in the regime-held areas, due to the worsening crisis again at gas stations.

Meanwhile, the Syrian pound’s value hit a new record low against foreign currencies as follows: 

• In Damascus: the buying rate is 2,870 SYP and the selling rate is 2,900 SYP against the dollar, while the buying rate is 3,495 SYP and the selling rate is 3,530 SYP against the euro.

• In Idlib and Aleppo countryside: the buying rate is 384 SYP and the selling rate is 378 SYP against Turkish lira.

On the other hand, the price of one gram of 21 carat gold has reached 151,400 SYP per gram in Damascus.

Yesterday, the Syrian Observatory pointed out that provinces in the Syrian regime-held areas were experiencing a growing fuel crisis, with the regime’s inability to meet the fuel needs of civilians, and the spread of corruption in the regime’s institutions responsible for distributing fuel.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights has monitored long queues of vehicles at gas stations in Damascus, Tartus, Aleppo and Latakia, where hundreds of cars are forced to queue for long hours to fill up.

The regime’s Ministry of Oil and Mineral Resources issued yesterday a decision to reduce the amount of fuel allocated to citizens. The regime justified the decision by the scarcity of oil resources in the country in the light of the international sanctions.

The Ministry decided to temporarily reduce the oil allocations distributed to the provinces, by 17% for gasoline and 24% for diesel.

In this context, the phenomenon of selling fuel on the black market has emerged, where fuel is available at triple the price, as one litre of gasoline is sold for about 2,000 pounds while a litre of diesel is sold for about 1,500 Syrian pounds.