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🇸🇬 Singapore /Energy & Infrastructure

Mongolians Wait Hours for Fuel as Reliance on Russia Bites

From The Straits Times · () English

Translated from English and summarized by DistantNews. Read the original for the full story.

At a glance

Newswire From a news agency Ongoing story
  • Petrol shortages have left Mongolian drivers waiting for hours, after disruptions linked in the article to Ukrainian strikes on Russian oil facilities.
  • The crisis has depleted Mongolia’s limited stockpiles, disrupted logistics and increased costs, while government rationing measures have frustrated residents.
  • Officials and analysts say rural herders and tourism-dependent regions face particular difficulties, and recent efforts to import fuel from Kazakhstan, South Korea and China have not ended the country’s underlying dependence on foreign suppliers.

After waiting five hours for petrol, Mongolian pensioner Nasanjargal was still 10 places from the pump, with dozens of cars queued behind him across the arid steppe. He had driven for an hour and a half from Ulaanbaatar, hoping fuel would be easier to find outside the capital. It was not.

“Fuel is unavailable, there are huge queues everywhere,” he told AFP from his motionless Toyota sedan. The former police officer, who uses one name, had his young granddaughter in the back seat and said he was “out of options.” He later added, “It’s the same story everywhere.”

Fuel is unavailable, there are huge queues everywhere.

· NasanjargalThe Mongolian pensioner describes the shortages after waiting hours at a petrol station.

Landlocked between Russia and China, Mongolia has historically imported more than 95 percent of its petrol from its northern neighbor. The article says Ukrainian strikes on Russian oil facilities disrupted supplies in recent months, exhausting Mongolia’s limited reserves and raising questions about the country’s energy security. The shortages have disrupted transport, increased costs and spoiled road-trip plans during the short summer season.

The government has introduced daily limits on individual fuel purchases, banned stockpiling and adopted an alternating license-plate system to reduce the number of cars at filling stations. But the measures have brought little relief to people facing the queues. Nasanjargal described the lines as “very troublesome and extremely difficult overall.”

I headed out this way hoping things might be better out in the rural areas. It’s the same story everywhere.

· NasanjargalHe explains why he drove from Ulaanbaatar and says the shortage extends beyond the capital.

The effects reach beyond congested Ulaanbaatar. In central Dundgovi province, Governor Munkhchuluun Samdannyam said the local government’s first priority was meeting the needs of tourists and herders. In the Gobi, herders rely on motorized wells and pumps, which require gasoline.

Energy policy analyst Telmen Altanshagai said Mongolia’s size and population of 3.6 million limit the resources available for infrastructure. The country has discussed petroleum trade with Kazakhstan and, under pressure from the current crisis, imported fuel from South Korea and China. But diversification, Telmen said, does not resolve the fundamental dependence on foreign suppliers.

Under Gobi conditions, herders do not draw water from wells by hand. They mostly use motors and pumps. And to operate those motors, gasoline is necessary.

· Munkhchuluun SamdannyamThe Dundgovi governor explains how fuel shortages affect rural herders.
About this summary

Originally published by The Straits Times in English. Translated, summarized, and contextualized automatically by DistantNews, with a note on how the source frames the story. Not individually reviewed before publishing. How this works.

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