SOME petrol stations may have to close down as they do not have enough cash to pay for fuel shipments, the head of the stations’ owners said yesterday.

“We may have to temporarily close some petrol stations because they have run out of cash. This creates great concerns to those in this profession,” said the head of the petrol station owners’ association, Stefanos Stefanou.

“Petrol stations pay for their fuel shipment only with cash and cash is running out,” Stefanou added.

“There are some petrol stations that are still accepting credit cards today, but tomorrow no petrol station will do so,” he said, asking consumers to take cash with them to carry out transactions.

Small shopkeepers’ union, POVEK, issued an announcement yesterday saying that because fuel companies only supplied petrol stations on cash payments, customers also needed to pay with cash at their end.

“Unfortunately there is no other solution for petrol station owners,” POVEK said.

But petrol company Petrolina issued an announcement later yesterday saying Petrolina-Agip stations would continue accepting bank cards.

Three other companies are active in Cyprus – EKO Hellenic Petroleum, Lukoil and Exxon Mobil.

Both Stefanou and POVEK said there was enough fuel in Cyprus.

“There is no reason for people to rush to petrol stations to fill their tanks,” POVEK said asking consumers to “show understanding so we can all get through this hard time together”.

Cyprus Mail