Fuel Scarcity Hits Medan, Residents Queue for Hours at Petrol Stations

Fuel supplies at several petrol stations (SPBU) in Medan, North Sumatra, have been reported as scarce. As a result, residents have been forced to queue from late afternoon into the night to obtain fuel. On Tuesday evening, a number of SPBUs in Medan ran out of Pertalite and Pertamax stocks. This situation was observed at locations including SPBU Pajak Sore on Jalan Jamin Ginting, SPBU Simpang Pos on Jalan Jamin Ginting, and SPBU Lau Chih on Jalan Jamin Ginting, in Medan Tuntungan District. One motorist, Leo Sembiring, claimed he visited four petrol stations, all of which had run out of subsidised Pertalite fuel. He eventually managed to refuel at the Ngumbang Surbakti SPBU. Leo recounted that he began queuing at 6.30pm local time and was still in the queue at 10.30pm. He said he was forced to wait because he needed the fuel for work the next day. Regarding the situation, Governor Bobby Nasution said the long queues had been occurring for the past two days. He attributed the problem to distribution issues caused by the mass dismissal of fuel truck drivers. Nasution stated that coordination is underway with Pertamina and the military and police to provide temporary drivers and security to resolve the distribution bottleneck.