Protesters block oil tankers in Syria over fuel prices

Shafaq News- Damascus

Residents of Tal Tamr, a town north of Al-Hasakah in northeastern Syria, blocked oil tankers on the M4 highway* on Wednesday, protesting soaring fuel prices as winter sets in.

Rising fuel costs have become a heavy burden on families with limited incomes and shrinking purchasing power, making diesel and gasoline hard to afford just as households need fuel for heating, protester Hozan Shekho told Shafaq News. “Residents are not opposed to fuel supplies, but want prices set at a level they can afford.”

Another protester, Hussein al-Hadi, said the fuel crisis comes on top of poor services in the town, where public electricity is available for only a few hours a day, leaving residents reliant on diesel for heating. Higher fuel prices also drive up transport costs and the prices of basic goods, he said, urging the authorities to act quickly.

A liter of diesel costs 175 Syrian pounds (about $1.44) and a liter of gasoline 185 pounds (about $1.52).

On Monday, Iqbal Mansour, head of the energy committee in Syria's People's Assembly, announced a plan to distribute 100 liters of heating diesel to each of about one million of the most vulnerable families, 100 million liters in all, at a subsidized price of 115 pounds per liter.

*The M4, the main east–west highway across northern Syria, carries tankers transporting oil from Iraq and from Syrian oil fields in the region.