Swimming in oil, Iraqis still made to wait hours at gas stations

BAGHDAD (AFP) - Pressed for time, Ahmad Hussein refuses to spend hours queuing for petrol at one of Baghdad's teeming gas stations so he takes his car to a street vendor where it costs six times as much to fill up.

"Have you ever seen anything like this in a country that is floating on a sea of oil?" the 60-year-old businessman demanded as he stood on the roadside watching a scruffy boy pour petrol into his tank from a plastic container -- a scene that is commonplace across the capital.

"It would cost 3,000 dinars (2.1 dollars, 1.7 euros) to fill my car at a petrol station, but it would also cost three hours of my time so that is why I choose to pay an extra 17,000 dinars and buy off the street," he said.

Iraq (news - web sites) sits atop one of the world's largest oil reserves, but fears among the public of a fuel shortage due to pipeline sabotage, kidnappings of lorry drivers who import gas from Turkey and a general surge in demand have triggered huge queues at petrol stations in Baghdad and elsewhere.

Yahoo