Overview

There is no fuel production in Haiti; all combustible is imported. There is also no refinery. Fuel arrives ready to be consumed.

Type of fuel imported:

• Gasoline 91,
• Gasoline 95,
• Gasoil,
• Kerosene is imported together with smaller quantity of JET-A1 for the air transportation industry.
• And Crude oil commonly called MAZAOUT is imported as well for Central electricity purposes.

Haiti used to receive all its petroleum products from Venezuela under a regional agreement called PETROCARIBE, however, after the cessation of the PETROCARIBE program around 2019, mainly because Venezuela had difficultly managed to have significant of product to supply the market, Haiti imported the petroleum via the international market and receive by vessel. However, despite being a monopoly of the Haitian Government for years, since 2021, considering multiple constraints preventing the state to place orders on time, the government was obliged to authorize some large local distributors to import their own cargo of fuel like DINASSA, BANDARI, SOL, ETC. 

During the 2010 earthquake emergency response fuel was imported also from the Dominican Republic, to cope with the shortage resulted from the crisis, but this parallel importation was only allowed for a few weeks. Set up of contingency stocks is recommended especially up country where no large public or private facilities are available. Fuel is delivered only by ship and a change in a ship delivery or a missing delivery could cause distribution shortage.

Fuel cost greatly impact on the trade sectors, increase of fuel price caused large scale of protests in the country.

Fuel Pricing

Since December 10, 2021, there have been new fuel tariffs, resulting in the doubling of diesel and kerosene prices, and a substantial increase in gasoline in Haiti. The gallon of gasoline goes from 201 to 250 Gourdes, diesel from 169 to 353 Gourdes and kerosene from 163 to 352 Gourdes.

Seasonal Variations 

Haiti not being a fuel producer, in addition to its very limited and centralized storage capacity, is causing a lot of pressure on the use of the product in the country. Quite often, and even too often, the petroleum product is not available in the market at all. Therefore, consumers have to deal with recurring shortages which sometimes created a generalized panic.

Shortages can also be related to importation problems, high demand and /or any unforeseen ongoing situation in the terminals as there all place in red zone. Any gang fighting or else can impacted even the distribution of fuel in Country.

Thus, we have observed during these past months, regular importation rarely sufficient or enough to supply local needs and consumption as there is no contingency stocks at national level and any delay of vessel caused shortages.

Fuel Transportation

Fuel is received in Port-au-Prince at two facilities (Varreux and Thor) and then distributed from the capital through different private fuel distributors around the country. This transfer is done by road with fuel trucks. Each company has its own fleet of trucks, but to meet the needs, they also sub-contract part of it to private operators. Transportation infrastructure and fleet are not always sufficient to handle current domestic needs as well as increased demand from the humanitarian community.

Standards, Quality and Testing

For information on Haiti Fuel contact details, please see the following links: 

4.6 Haiti Fuel Provider Contact List

4.1 Haiti Government Contact List