THE Guyanese public especially motorists yesterday breathed a sigh of relief following reports that Venezuela has facilitated this country with “a shipment of 16,000 barrels of gasoline and diesel fuel”.

The dispatch of the commodity, which arrived here on Tuesday was upon an urgent request made by the Guyana Government to the Venezuela Government.

The build-up of vehicles was evident on Tuesday at other gas stations - Shell, Esso, and Texaco -, as motorists queued up for fuel upon notice that GUYOIL was out of stock.

The Venezuela Embassy in a release, which this newspaper only accessed yesterday morning, had stated that a Panamanian-registered vessel, MT Caribbean Pearl had arrived in Guyana waters at 3 am on Tuesday and docked in Port Georgetown at 9.45 am.

“This supply of fuel constitutes an extraordinary shipment to attend to the emergency that the Government of Guyana presented last week through the Prime Minister Samuel Hinds,” it said, adding that the shipment from the Venezuela Government was to avoid a crisis which was becoming noticeable with the closing of some gas stations.

“With this delivery of fuel, Venezuela ratifies its politics of cooperation and solidarity to guarantee direct benefits for the people of Guyana and the other Caribbean countries. Likewise, it shows its disposition to work for the economic and social integration of the people of Latin America and the Caribbean,” the release added.

The fuel shortage situation which also hit the Guyana Power and Light (GPL) resulted in unstable power supply leading to the inconvenience of residents of various communities.

Even the Guyana Water Inc. has had to apologise to its consuming public for not being able to adequately supply water to communities.

Further, President Bharrat Jagdeo on Friday sacked Ronald Alli, Chairman of GPL and Joseph O’Lall, Chief Executive Officer of the Guyana Energy Agency (GEA), of apparent mismanagement in the ordering of fuel supplies.