SULAIMANI (ESTA) — Taxi drivers in Erbil protested after the fuel price was hiked to double on Wednesday.
Fuel prices hit the highest record almost daily, causing financial difficulty for the Kurdish people.
Esta’s reporter in Erbil said dozens of taxi drivers blocked Koy Sanjaq-Erbil main road against high fuel prices.
“The fuel is overpriced and extremely expensive,” a driver told the reporter.
The drivers called on the government to drop prices, which have risen across the Kurdistan Region since Iraq’s October 2021 elections which coincided with a global hike in oil prices around the world.
Petrol prices in The Kurdistan Region hit a new record of 1$ per liter on Sunday.
The Kurdistan Region is one of the largest producers of oil and processed petroleum products. In recent years, it has become a major exporter, sending large quantities to the global markets.
But yet, the Region buys Petrol from other countries. That’s partly because it suffers from the lack of local refineries to produce Petrol for the region itself.