BAGHDAD, Dec 31: Oil-rich Iraq is suffering an energy crisis in the wake of insurgent attacks on oil facilities and a run on the pumps as people struggle to fill cars and generators amid spiralling prices and ever-worsening power shortages.

News of the closure of the country’s largest oil refinery in the northern town of Baiji send motorists scrambling to fill up amid fears of even further shortages with hundreds of car lining up at those petrol stations that remain open.

The plant was closed on December 21 after tanker drivers were threatened by insurgents seeking to add to the public disquiet over the recent petrol price increases brought in just days after a general elections.

The Baiji refinery normally produces 8.5 millions litres of petrol per day, along with 7.5 millions litres of diesel and its closure is costing the country some 18 million dollars a day.

Insurgents have repeatedly attacked oil installations across Iraq and are believed to be behind recent cases of attacks on petrol stations.

On Friday, several mortar shells slammed into a line of tanker trucks waiting to pick up fuel at an oil depot in Latifiyah, a few miles south of the capital, setting four trucks on fire, according to one tanker driver.

Ever since prices were increased, we’ve faced serious trouble and threats on the road or at the depot in Latifiyah, said 27-year-old driver Najim Obaid Soyd.

In the western part of the capital all the petrol stations have closed because of the threats, he said, as he delivered supplies to a petrol station in the centre of town Saturday.

My job is really dangerous, but I can’t give it up because I need to make a living, he added.

A sudden spell of cold weather, along with reduced public electricity generation because of lack of fuel, have also led to a surge in petrol demand for private generators in a town where power is rationed to four hours a day and where darkness reigns as soon as night falls.

“I have a generator at home which now consumes more than my car does,” said Ali Jabar, a 40-year-old taxi driver, who had already spent two hours queuing at a petrol station along with some 200 other motorists.

Another cab driver, 50-year-old Hussein Abbas, also complained about the recent tripling of petrol prices ordered by the government in a bid to reduce heavy state subsidies which account for half the state budget.

“I use to pay 3,000 dinars to fuel my car, now it costs at least 10,000 (almost seven dollars) to fill it which means I’m left with a daily take home pay of about 6,000 dinars (about four dollars),” he said.

Demonstrations have taken place up and down the country to protest the fuel increases and have led to the suspension of the oil minister, Ibrahim Bahr al-Ulum, after he publicly spoke out against his government’s decision and threatened to resign.

Petrol use to be cheaper than water at about 50 dinars (0.03 cents) a litre.

But ordinary petrol has now gone up to 150 dinars (0.10 cents) a litre and many, who cannot afford to spent hours queuing for it, resort to the black market where prices range up to 400 dinars (27 cents) a litre.

Ali Shaloeb, a 35-year-old private motorist, said he’d already spent 90 minutes in line at a petrol station and still had no idea when he would reach the head of the line.

Assim Jihad, spokesman for the oil ministry, said he did not anticipate a petrol shortage in Baghdad. The queues are only the result of an increased demand in petrol because of electricity shortages, he added.—AFP