Drivers Become Gas Sellers as Lines Grow at Pumps in Iraq

As a gasoline shortage hit Iraqis in recent days, one motorist pulled out a gun and fired two shots in the direction of another car trying to cut the line at a station here in the capital.

In Mosul, to the north, a U.S. soldier was killed in a drive-by shooting Monday while standing guard at another crowded and volatile filling station.

Drivers in the central city of Karbala became so outraged at the sudden nationwide shortage at government-run stations that they set tires on fire to block access at a set of pumps and jeered the U.S.-led coalition running their country until Polish troops stepped in to avert a riot.

To many observers, the gas lines often snaking three cars wide and a mile long out of stations and the resulting anger and unrest are seen as new evidence that the occupiers have failed to restore prewar services or social order seven months after President Bush declared the end of major combat.

The latest shortage is created in part by an unexpected rise in demand. But the return of long lines at the pump, a problem that plagued Baghdad drivers immediately after the springtime war, has been greatly exacerbated by enterprising car owners who are taking advantage of a disparity between the pittance charged for gas at the stations and the price many drivers are willing to pay to avoid a six-hour wait to tank up.

Thousands of jobless car owners are earning money by filling up and then siphoning the fuel into containers for friends or relatives to sell along roadsides at up to nearly 20 times the official price of less than 4 cents a gallon.

“My father brings me the gasoline in his car, and sometimes we buy more from other drivers. There is a big demand for gasoline,” said Alawi Khalid, who mans one of the ubiquitous roadside pit stops for motorists too busy to spend a full workday filling their tanks. The elder Khalid idles away hours in line, fills up, then transfers the gas to his son’s containers so he can quickly return to queue for a second or third daily refill.

The highest price the market seems willing to bear amounts to less than 80 cents a gallon, a bargain in comparison with U.S. or European prices but a relatively high price for Iraqis who, if lucky enough to be among the estimated 40% with jobs, on average earn less than $150 a month. But the black market that has emerged over the last few weeks provides thousands of jobless men with incomes of at least $5 a day -- about the same as those in government positions.

Some gas station managers, though state employees, admit privately that they have been taking bribes from black marketers to sell them gas when their stations are closed, getting their piece of the capitalist action.

The long lines, which coalition officials insist will be resolved in a week or so, also reflect higher demand for fuel from the slow growth of prosperity and the soaring number of cars entering the country as Iraqi exiles return. At least 250,000 more cars now ply the streets in this capital than before the April fall of Baghdad to U.S. troops, said Coalition Provisional Authority spokesman Dan Senor.

“Black-market manipulations continue to be a problem,” Senor said Monday, adding that a recent strike among Turkish tanker-truck drivers had hurt supplies around Mosul and inspired hoarding.

Coalition troops are being dispatched to drive away the increasing number of illegal roadside vendors, who so far have been running their itinerant filling operations without interference. The civilian authority also has issued orders to some of Baghdad’s meager 105 gas stations to stay open round-the-clock to ease the backlog, Senor said.

Iraqi officials in the coalition-appointed Iraqi Governing Council and Cabinet bemoan the sudden return of aggravating gas lines despite what might be seen as encouraging upsides.

“You can argue it this way,” that the problem reflects an outbreak of entrepreneurial spirit, said Mouwafak Rabii, one of 25 members of the Governing Council, which serves as interim executive and legislature. “But this is the ugly face of capitalism.”

Asim Jihad, an advisor for the government’s Oil Products Distribution Co., blames persistent problems with Iraq’s heavily damaged electricity grid for power cuts that idle refineries, preventing gas producers from stepping up output to meet an expanding market.

No one contacted from either the coalition or the government supported the idea of boosting the official price closer to the one being set by free-market forces, at least not at what remains a sensitive juncture in the campaign to restore Iraqi self-rule. Both coalition and Iraqi officials deem the crisis temporary and resolvable, but point to the risk of violent outbursts among citizens sick of the postwar disruptions.

The U.S. soldier killed at the Mosul gas station was shot from a car carrying four men as it passed by the chaotic scene. The victim was with the 101st Airborne Division. The coalition has not said whether his killing was believed linked to the gas crisis or part of ongoing attacks on foreign forces by insurgents.

While having frustrated -- and often armed -- men lining streets for hours is far from conducive to restoration of law and order, there appears to be at least one positive social consequence in the furtherance of female emancipation.

Female drivers, a rarity even in secular areas of Baghdad, are allowed to go to the head of the gas lines.

“My husband has granted me this great honor,” 38-year-old Rafah Saleh said with amused sarcasm as she glided up to the pumps in their 2001 Nissan Maxima. “Iraqi women from all walks of life are now getting their rights.”