Drivers in the war-torn district of Shingal (Sinjar), west of Nineveh, have been facing a shortage of gasoline for more than a week and have been waiting for hours at gas public stations.
According to KirkukNow follow up, the shortage of gasoline in the district came after the contract of Kar company for refining crude oil with the Iraqi Oil Products Distribution Company expired and has not been renewed.
Abbas Murad, a driver from Sinune district (north of Sinjar), told Kirkuk Now: “I went to the gas station at 8 am and had to stay for eight hours to refill the tank.”
Murad says the amount of gasoline in Sinjar has decreased, so it is not enough for drivers and hundreds of vehicles are waiting in long queues.
Like Sinjar, the gasoline crisis has emerged in most other areas of western Nineveh.
A few days ago, the contract between the company and the oil products distribution company was renewed,
"The contract between the company and the oil products distribution company has been renewed a few days ago to supply fuel, so the crisis is going to end these days and the problem will be resolved," Khudeda Juki, acting director of Sinjar district, told Kirkuk Now.
In recent years, the gasoline crisis has emerged more than once in Sinjar, the last time was in mid-2022, which was later resolved by increasing the gasoline quota from 30,000 liters per day to 40,000 liters.
There are four government gas stations in the entire district of Sinjar; They sell a liter of gasoline for 450 Iraqi dinars IQD (USD0,3) according to the coupon, but on the streets people put gasoline in cans to sell each liter for 1,000 IQD.
Sinuny is part of Shingal, home to the ethno-religious minority of Ezidis and one of the disputed territories between Baghdad and Erbil.
The disputed territories extend from Khanaqin in the east on the border with Iran to the oil rich city of Kirkuk heading to the west of Mosul in Shingal, on the borders with Syria.
Following the declaration of military defeat of so called Islamic State in Iraq and Syria ISIS by the Iraqi government back in 2017, discord over security arrangements, public services, and the lack of a unified administration in the disputed territories, have plagued victims and survivors and led to poor public services, crisis and shortages in many public sectors in particular power supply, water, healthcare and oil products.
