Hi everyone,

We just wanted to start a thread about the current gas shortage in West Africa. We are in Bissau and apart from overpriced watered down gas sold in the markets, there is nothing other than diesel. Since the whole region seems to be running on diesel, not many people are talking about this.

From what we have heard, this seems to be linked to Senegal and the fact that Wade has not been paying for gas from Total and Shell for a while now and they just stopped providing it. Since Senegal is the main supplier of gas for Mauritania, Mali, Guinea Bissau, Guinea Conakry and the Gambia, there is a rather large gas (not diesel) shortage in the area. This is only what we've heard and considering there are no other threads about this, we're wondering if we have been misled.

I should also mention that this is pretty new. We were in Ziguinchor less than 2 weeks ago and there was gas there but none in Guinea Bissau. Also, everywhere else in Senegal had plenty of gas at that time although they were closing gas stations in Dakar for the big islamic conference.

We have enough gas to get to Guinea Conakry (not Conakry but the border) and are wondering if there is gas there. Also, are people finding gas in Senegal or Mali? Since we are on bikes, we can't carry that much of a reserve so we need to figure out where to go next.

If anyone has any information, we would appreciate it.

Thanks,

Gael & Sonja

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Traveling through Africa on 2 Yamaha XT225s
www.gaelandsonja.com