Kirkuk drivers' protest that fees of coupons printed for weekly gas rations for private and public cars has doubled compared to last year.
Last year drivers of private cars paid only 5,ooo Iraqi Dinars IQD ($4) while for 2021 they paid 8-12,000. For taxis and cargo vehicles, it has jumped from 10,000 to 16-18,000IQD.
Dilan Majid, owner of a private car in Kirkuk, has paid 10,000 IQD while last year he paid only 5,000. "This is corruption and unfair, I do not accept it. Company of oil products distribution and Kirkuk administration should not be silent. This is chaos."
"This is corruption and unfair, I do not accept it.
The oil rich, multi ethnicity of Kirkuk is the only city that distributes fuel per coupons, as state-run Company of oil products distribution says, in order to avoid flood of state-subsidized fuel into Kurdistan region provinces where fuel are more expensive and privatized, and also into neighbor cities like Mosul.
Private cars are entitled to get 40 liters of gas a weekend taxis get double from state petrol stations in a price cheaper than private oil stations which import fuel.
Popular bazaar downtown around Kirkuk citadel in 2019. Photo by KirkukNow.
The coupons are distributed by food ration dealers whom charge per their wills with no censorship. "Some of the dealers have become very rich," said Kazim Suleiman, a taxi driver who paid only 10,000IQD last year but charged 18,000 in 2021.
In the (Black market), private car coupon is sold for 70,000 IQD while those for taxis 90-120,000 IQD.
The oil rich city of Kirkuk, Iraq's second largest oil reserves, is ethnically a mixed province of Kurds, Sunni and Shiite Arabs, and Turkmen. It has long been at the center of disputes between Baghdad and the autonomous Kurdistan Regional Government KRG.
Kirkuk, 238 kilometers north of Baghdad, is located in a disputed area of Iraq that runs from Shingal on the Syrian border southeast to Khanaqin and Mandali on the Iranian border. Kurds who ran Kirkuk from 2003 after fall of Saddam regime wanted Kirkuk to become part of the Kurdistan region, which has been opposed by the regions with Arab and Turkmen populations. In 2017, following defeat of the so-called Islamic State ISIS, Iraqi forces took over control of the disputed territories and sacked Kurdish Peshmarga fighters.
Some of the dealers blame their colleagues for being greedy. Jabar Tahsin, a food dealer, believes food dealers lost their income they were making out of food distribution and try to compensate it from gas coupons.
"Some of the dealers are greedy and oil products' distribution company cannot address the issue."
"Some of the dealers are greedy and oil products' distribution company cannot address the issue."
Kirkuk administration is trying to sort out the problem. A source in Kirkuk administration said they are discussing the issue with Company of distribution of oil products. "This system of coupons cannot be skipped per drivers desire as in the past gas was smuggled and sold leading to gas shortage in Kirkuk," the anonymous source added.
In February 2021, Kirkuk has produced about 3.8 million barrels for $60/barrel topping up $228 million to Iraq’s national revenues while in January it has produced 3m barrels of crude oil, barrel per $53, generating over $150millions.
State subsidized stations charge 450IQD per liter of gas while private ones charge 600IQD.
Kirkuk Oil products' company vowed to solve the problem.
Ghassan Mohammed, media manager of the company told KirkukNow they have charged the dealers 2,000 for private car coupons and 6,000 for the taxis. "it’s the dealers whom charged the drivers not us yet we will not turn our back to the drivers and can go the dealers to be refunded."
"We will find a mechanism for a better distribution of gas," he added.
