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|**Country E R**|**Pricing policy and strategy**|**Fuel supply conditions**|
|---|---|---|
||start deregulating prices in May 2007 but stopped because of price<br>volatility. Government abolished subsidies to importers, but they<br>were not allowed to raise retail prices without approval from the<br>trade and finance ministries. With increases in retail prices failing to<br>stay in line with rising international prices, importers suffered from<br>negative margins. In Jan and Feb 2013, government did not allow<br>prices to rise and instead asked fuel suppliers to draw from the<br>stabilization fund to reduce losses.<br>**Tax reductions**: Import tariffs on gasoline and jet fuel were<br>abolished in Feb 2012 and on diesel and kerosene in Mar 2012.<br>Government has historically adjusted import tariffs frequently to<br>smooth retail prices.<br>**Hedging**: After fuel-hedging losses of some US$30 million in 2008,<br>several airline executives were jailed, allegedly for acting<br>irresponsibility and causing losses, and two foreign executives were<br>barred from leaving the country.|<br>|
|Yemen,<br>Rep.<br>√ √|<br> **Pricing policy**: Government controls, subsidizes, and infrequently<br>adjusts fuel prices. In 2005, government began and then stopped<br>reforming fuel price subsidies. In 2011, regular gasoline was<br>withdrawn from the market, leaving only super gasoline priced at<br>175 rial (US$0.82)/liter. In Apr 2012, super gasoline was withdrawn<br>from the market and regular gasoline, previously priced at 75<br>rial/liter, was re-introduced at 125 rial (US$0.58).<br>**Protests**: In Jul 2005, at least 39 people were reportedly killed and<br>more than 300 were wounded in riots sparked by fuel price hikes.<br>After the price of diesel doubled in Apr 2012, farmers protested by<br>blocking roads.<br>**Consequences of subsidies**: Fuel subsidies reached 14% of GDP in<br>2008.|<br>**Supply**: There is one large refinery in<br>disrepair.<br>**Shortages**: There have been frequent fuel<br>shortages, caused by hijacking of delivery<br>trucks from the refinery in Aden, road<br>blocks preventing fuel delivery to Sana’a,<br>smuggling to Somalia and Djibouti, oil<br>pipeline attacks (which brought the Aden<br>refinery to a halt for more than two months<br>in 2011), and the inability to obtain credit<br>to buy petroleum products on the open<br>market. Traders are reluctant to export fuels<br>to Yemen, fearing payment problems.|
||Year<br>2006<br>2007<br>2008<br>2009<br>2010<br>US$ billion<br>1.5<br>2.0<br>3.7<br>1.9<br>1.5|Severe diesel shortages have damaged<br>agriculture, cut back-up power generation|
||<br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br>% of GDP<br>8.1<br>9.3<br>13.8<br>7.7<br>8.2<br>_Source_: IMF.|in hospitals and government buildings, and<br>caused strikes. Black market prices can<br>increase prices several-fold. In Jan 2011,<br>Minister of Oil and Minerals and the<br>Director General of Yemen Petroleum<br>Company were suspended over fuel<br>shortages. In response to fuel shortages in<br>Apr and May 2011, government ordered<br>fuel rationing. Saudi Arabia, Oman, and the<br>United Arab Emirates have donated fuels.|
|Zambia<br>√|<br>**Pricing policy**: Government sets wholesale prices according to a<br>cost-plus formula. Government adopted a uniform pricing<br>mechanism in Sep 2010, to be implemented in phases, for gasoline,<br>diesel, and kerosene sold at filling stations. Uniform pricing is<br>meant to be self-financing and achieved through the Rural Fuel<br>Subsidy Fund. Recently prices have been adjusted infrequently,<br>raising concerns that they may have fallen below cost-recovery<br>levels. Government has frequently reduced or suspended excise|**Supply**: Indeni is small and old, as is the<br>pipeline carrying crude to the refinery. The<br>Indeni refinery has been protected by a<br>25% import tariff, without which it cannot<br>compete with product imports.<br>Unscheduled or longer-than-planned<br>refinery closures for maintenance and<br>repair have frequently led to fuel shortages.|
||<br>taxes and customs duties on petroleum products, especially when the<br>country’s sole refinery, Indeni, is shut down, such as in Oct 2009.<br>There is a 25% import tariff. In August 2008, after the refinery shut<br>down twice, oil companies began importing petroleum products<br>directly. In Jan 2009, the import duty was increased from 5% to<br>25% to protect the refinery and Tazama Pipelines, which was left<br>with a large inventory surplus.|<br> <br>When copper production is low, the<br>refinery may be left with surplus fuel, and<br>even had to shut down in Apr 2010. In Oct<br>2009, government took over the refinery,<br>taking the other 50% share from Total.<br>Even by the standards of landlocked<br>countries, fuel prices in Zambia have<br>historicallybeen high. Aside from the high|