Tunisia has only one week of petrol supply

Tunisia only has enough petrol to last a week, a senior official in the labour union said, but the energy minister said a new tanker was unloading and that big queues at fuel stations had been caused by a rush of consumers hoarding supply. Long lines of cars have jammed roads as they wait to fill their tanks around Tunis over recent days in what critics of the government see as another sign of an unfolding crisis in public finances. The petrol tanker now unloading at Bizerte will give Tunisia an extra few days of supply, taking it to 10-14 days in total, down from the usual 60 days of strategic reserves, said Salouan Smiri, a senior official in the oil section of the UGTT union. -- AFP