A newly-opened Woqod petrol station in Al Ghanam area near Grand Hamad Street in Doha. The petrol station is opposite the place where New World Centre was located — between Al Kabir Street intersection known as Sword Intersection and Al Kutub Roundabout.
Doha: The crowding at fuel stations across the country will be fully resolved when new facilities being constructed at strategic locations are ready for operation, a senior official of Woqod has said.
Hejji Ghanim H A Al Rumaihi, Retail Manager at Woqod said that the rush at fuel stations resulted from a combination of factors and Woqod had no role in the closure of several private fuel stations.
“The problem of crowding at fuel stations did not happen overnight,” Al Rumaihi said talking in a programme on Qatar TV, named Nabd Al Eqtisad.
“There are several reasons behind it. In the past, Woqod fuel stations accounted for about 30% of the total fuel stations across the country. But for some reasons many petrol stations were shut down. The closure affected the refueling services because some of the facilities were located at very strategic locations. All those closed were non-Woqod fuel stations,” he added.
Wopod’s priority now is to increase the number of fuel stations.
“We are building new fuel stations but the result will come when the numbers reach a certain level and the services are made available at strategic locations,” said the official.
Currently about 50 percent of fuel stations are under Woqod. “There is pressure on every fuel station not only on those run by Woqod,” he added.
The official said that safety and security was a major factor in shutting down some fuel stations. There is a committee at Qatar Petroleum for regulating fuel stations to ensure they comply with the rules.
“It is not correct to say that non-Woqod petrol stations were shut down because of Woqod. Woqod has no role in the closure of private petrol stations. We are also abiding by the safety and security rules of the committee like any other fuel station,” said Al Rumaihi.
He said that all possible measures were being taken to address the shortage like opening mobile fuel stations in key locations and technical steps to improve the efficiency of fuel stations like installing long hoses enabling motorists to refuel their vehicles from both sides of the filling machines.
Mobile fuel stations bring relief to motorists
“Since the matter needed to be addressed on an urgent basis, ministries and other government bodies concerned responded quickly. Plots for building new fuel stations were allotted. The pace of construction has become faster compared to the past. But it needs time to fully resolve the problem,” said Al Rumaihi.
A special department at Woqod is in charge of establishing mobile fuel stations as a temporary solution to the problem. The mobile stations have brought great relief to the motorists. “This year we established temporary facilities at Al Sadd, Rawdat Khail, Al Waki and Al Wakra. A mobile diesel station was also set up at Al Kharara road,” said Al Rumaihi.
