The tiny western Pacific island nation of the Marshall Islands has declared a state of economic emergency as soaring fuel prices threaten to shut down electricity supplies.
Failure to resolve the fuel crisis could lead to a “disaster of unimaginable magnitude,” Marshall Islands President Litokwa Tomeing said in a statement late on Thursday.
“Accordingly, I, Litokwa Tomeing, on behalf of the Cabinet of the Republic of the Marshall Islands, hereby issue this public proclamation declaring a state of economic emergency,” he said in the statement, which was broadcast nationally.
“The national power utilities are projected to face an estimated shortfall of US$17.5 million to US$21 million over the next 12 months assuming the global [fuel price] trend continues,” Tomeing said.
This shortfall is close to 20 percent of the total national budget.
Tomeing said the country had enough diesel to keep the power generators running until the end of next month.
However, it needed to find US$8.5 million in the next week to pay Seoul-based SK Networks for last month’s diesel shipment and a downpayment for the next shipment.
The Marshalls Energy Company told the government last week that it could not raise the money in time without an immediate cash injection.
The Cabinet has decided to seek financial help from the US, Taiwan, Japan, Australia and other countries and donor agencies.
Without their help, it said the government might have to shut down power in the country of about 54,000 people.
“Without electricity everything will come to a standstill,” Finance Minister Jack Ading told visiting Asian Development Bank officials this week.
“The adverse effects of this global fuel crisis, its intensity and severity, are even more acute and destabilizing on small island states like the Marshall Islands with practically no means to protect itself from external pressures and shocks,” Ading said.
The cost of running diesel-powered generators in the two main urban centers and three outer islands is estimated at US$2.8 million a month.
Although power charges have nearly quadrupled in the last two years, utility companies generate only about US$1.3 million a month, showed figures provided by the Marshalls Energy Company, the main utility firm.
Red-hot world oil prices blazed over a record US$146 a barrel on Thursday in the face of falling US oil reserves, geopolitical tensions and a weak US dollar, traders said.
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