A man extracts gasoline from a Venezuelan car in Cucuta, Colombia, at the border with Venezuela. The Venezuelan government implanted a gasoline rationing chip in vehicles in the states of Tachira and Zulia, in the border with Colombia, to combat smuggling from Venezuela, a country with the world's cheapest fuel.

The way the government is doing it is by installing a chip on each vehicle. The idea is to put a maximum weekly limit on the number of liters each car can purchase.

A “pinpinero” man selling smuggled gasoline, waits for clients near a highway in Cucuta, Colombia, on its border with Venezuela. According to the latest report from UK website, a liter of gasoline in Venezuela costs about eight pennies.

Smuggling is extremely common in Zulia, an opposition stronghold next to the Colombian border, which happens to also be the birthplace of Venezuela’s oil industry.

A man extracts gasoline from a Venezuelan car in Cucuta, Colombia, at the border with Venezuela. The government is pushing ahead with the unpopular measure in an attempt to end a business that experts say is more profitable than drug-trafficking

Venezuela imports increasing amounts of petrol from the US, as output at its own refineries declines due to a lack of investment.

A close up of a gasoline rationing chip on a car in San Cristobal, Tachira state, Venezuela.