Kahramanmaras earthquakes: How critical is the uninterrupted fuel supply

Abstract

In the near future, many cataclysmic earthquakes shook Türkiye, but the most devastating ones were on Feb. 6, 2023. Unprecedentedly, a pair of earthquakes caused a massive death toll, thousands of casualties, displacement of millions of people and damage to infrastructure. Logistically, fuel was indispensable for conveying urgent need goods to the disaster zones, so meticulous monitoring of fuel supply was critical. Under these chaotic and unexpected conditions, accessing real-time market data is invaluable for governmental authorities to make instant decisions. During the operations of disaster management, a fuel monitoring system, unique in the world in terms of providing real-time fuel data, was utilized in Türkiye. The data obtained from this system guided Turkish decision-makers to analyze and assess the impacts of the quakes on the market. This paper aims to reveal the relationship between natural disasters (especially earthquakes) and the fuel market and how the Turkish fuel market has been affected by the recent devastating earthquakes. The data used in this study indicate that people ran to the stations in panic on the first day of the Kahramanmaras earthquakes. Hence, fuel sales increased remarkably in the less-affected zones, and some regions faced the risk of running out of gasoline due to the destruction of infrastructure and stations. Along with these outcomes, the recommendations for mitigating the negative impacts of upcoming earthquakes are also provided.

Keywords

• Fuel Monitoring
• Kahramanmaras Earthquakes
• Impacts on Fuel Market

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