The president of Ancap, Alejandro Stipanicicexpressed his desire to modernize fuel distribution and put on the table two lines of action that are being managed in Ancap: automated service stations and sale of bottled gasoline.
Stipanicic explained how the Termas del Arapey premises work, a pilot test of an automatic station inaugurated in 2019. “You go, the motion sensor alerts the Ducsa call-center in Montevideo that there is a client and from that moment, from Montevideo , a person can monitor what happens at the gas station. But the person (who is going to refuel) touches a button, starts the operation, puts in his card, loads, pays and leaves. There is not a single human being on the lap,” he recounted.
“That, which was a pilot test, was a prototype that the Ursea authorized at the time and to have more of those service stations we need the regulation of the Ursea,” he added. The chief said in an interview with the Quien es Quien program on Diamante FM and Channel 5 that The request has already been made to replicate this type of stations and plans to do so “in every place in the country that needs it”.
He also described that, in particular, there is a “void” in the southern area of Rivera, Tacuarembó, the east of Salto and Paysandú. “We want more automatic stations in remote places today,” he declared.
Stipanicic stated that it is not the plan to eliminate traditional stations, but that there be “the maximum competition in the market of fuel distribution.
“Is it necessary to have pisteros all night? I do not think so. I think we can put the night crews on the morning or afternoon shift and have an automated station at night”
The president of the state oil company also spoke about the packaged gasoline, which currently exists in clandestine stalls. “You go to lost warehouses along the way and there are bottles of gasoline. Why are those bottles? And … because there is a need,” she said. Asked if he proposed to sell naphtha, for example, in a supermarket, he replied “And why not? If a supermarket sells thinner, disan and turpentine“.
The head of the entity did not rule out the possibility of marketing them in 5 liter drums or 1 to 3 liter bottles and said that Ancap is analyzing the possibility, although regulations are needed to allow it to be done. If the market analysis “is good”, it would sell the four types of fuel currently offered, “or at least gasoline and diesel.”
In addition, the hierarch clarified that the sale of packaged product would not be exclusive to Ancap. “I give the idea for free to Disa and Axion to do it, It’s not a new idea,” he said.
He also explained that different tools or equipment usually use different mixtures of oil and gasoline, which opens up greater marketing possibilities. “I have a chainsaw and I have an edger. Every time the tank is empty I have to grab gasoline and two-stroke oil, measure, grab a jug, mix, and sometimes I mixed 50% oil for the edger but I need 30 % for the chainsaw”, he exemplified. Then he raised: “Why can’t we offer a drum that has an oil dispenser and a gasoline dispenser, for example, and you avoid mixing and simply do it in the drum?”.
Asked about the period in which he plans to advance these changes, he replied that he would like it “for yesterday”, but the company’s authorities are waiting for the corresponding regulatory framework to be adapted.
