Second fuel shortage hits Batam island in two weeks

Fadli, Batam

The industrial island of Batam, Riau province, faced shortages of premium gasoline and diesel fuel on Monday due to a lack of supplies from state-owned oil and gas company Pertamina.

Several of the 10 gasoline stations throughout the city, including one in Baloi and Kabil, were forced to close on Monday when their supplies ran out.

At several other gasoline stations, motorists had to queue to buy fuel, while querying what caused the shortage, which they said started on Sunday.

Sapto, a driver, said he had been trying to buy premium gasoline since 10 p.m. on Sunday.

"I thought it would have been available by Monday. But in fact, they are still all out of stock. Fuel has often been scarce recently. I don't why," he told The Jakarta Post near a gasoline station in the Tiban area.

The local Pertamina office admitted that the fuel shortage because of limited supplies from its company for domestic use in Batam.

Irto Petrus Gintings, spokesman for Batam's Pertamina marketing office, said his company only supplied 370 kiloliters of premium gasoline per day and 400 kiloliters of diesel fuel per day for Batam.

He blamed the fuel shortage on the limited supplies received from two national depots on Sambu Island in the Batam district of Belakang Padang, and in Tanjung Uban, North Bintan district in Riau Islands regency.

If the two depots faced shortages, some parts of Sumatra island would certainly run out of supplies, he said.

"It is not only on Batam, the shortages have also hit other Sumatran cities including Medan in North Sumatra and Padang in West Sumatra," Irto said.

However, he promised to solve the problem in Batam by late Monday afternoon.

"We hope the problem will end by 4 p.m. on Monday," Irto added.

He said a tanker had arrived and was unloading fuel.

By Monday afternoon, Pertamina resumed distributing fuel to gasoline stations through the depots.

The shortage was the second to hit Batam this month after one on June 6. At that time, Pertamina claimed the shortages were also due to the late arrival of a fuel tanker.

During the June 6 shortages, the main streets of Batam, with a population of around 530,000 people, became deserted.