LPG still hard to find, price remains high
Andi Hajramurni, The Jakarta Post, Makassar
As people turn to liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) to cope with higer fuel prices, increased demand coupled with a decline in national production means supply of the gas is becoming a problem.
In the South Sulawesi town of Makassar, several LPG suppliers and retailers said their entire stock was snapped up by consumers in the past few days, while the state oil and gas company PT Pertamina had limited supplies to replenish them.
"We've been low on supplies for the past three days since the supplies to the town were drastically cut," Lina, an employee of a distribution firm, said.
The cut was confirmed by Kaharuddin, a marketing officer at PT Petrorama Jasa, an LPG supplier in the city. He said his company had to cut deliveries to retailers since it was getting 70 percent less supply from Pertamina Makassar operations.
"Before the supply was cut, we used to get between 800 and 1,000 tanks a day but since the end of September, we have received 336 tanks a day and starting Monday, we only got 160 tanks," he said.
Demand for the cooking fuel alternative LPG has risen after kerosene became more expensive after the Oct. 1 price hikes. The county's LPG production is also down by around 20 percent because of technical problems and maintenance shutdowns in the two main LPG plants in Cilacap and Balikpapan.
The lack of supply from Pertamina, Kaharuddin said, had made the company cut distribution to their agents by up to 60 percent. "If the agents want 30 tanks, we can only distribute 15 to ensure all get a fair share. We have to do this, although we know demand is on the rise due to the high price of kerosene," he said.
Scarcity has pushed up LPG prices at retailers, with a 12-kg LPG gas tank selling at up to Rp 70,000 in Makassar while in remote areas like Selayar it is priced at up to Rp 85,000 a tank. Officially, a 12-kg tank is priced at Rp 51,000.
Traders in Selayar said the scarcity coupled with higher transportation costs, from Rp 12,000 to Rp 15,000 a tank, were responsible for the price hike.
A housewife, Rahma said she had been to four LPG agents in Makassar, none of which had any fuel.
"All of them had no more LPG. The fuel price increases are causing us big problems. We want to use kerosene but it's expensive and hard to find, and when we use LPG it's also hard to find. How can we poor people survive?" she said.
LPG shortages are also starting to spread to other cities, with residents in Banderlampung saying supplies to that city had almost vanished.
"We went to three shops and two gas stations to get the gas but they had all ran out," Lia, a resident of Gulak Galik subdistrict, told Antara.
Lampung councillor, Abdullah Fadri Auli, urged the government to immediately deal with the scarcity.
"LPG gas has become one of people's basic needs, especially to cook during the fasting month of Ramadhan, so don't make it hard to find because it's already expensive," Abdullah said.