Padang Faces Fuel Shortage
25 August 2014 08:10 WIB
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Measure to control subsidized fuel consumption has taken its toll on a number of gas filling stations in Padang, West Sumatra.
In this city, several gas filling stations are often short of diesel fuel supplies.
From Tempo’s observation, three gas filling stations in Padang did not serve solar refueling. A notice board bearing “Solar Sold Out” and “Solar on The Way” were put.
A gas filling station owner in Padang Asnawi Bahar said that his gas filling stations are often short of solar due to the restriction of subsidized fuel.
"Usually, every day, there’s one tank carrying solar but now it is once in two days,” he said on Saturday, August 23, 2014.
Asnawi said the drop in the solar supply is the cause of the long queue in a number of gas filling stations.
"Now we also sell less solar now due to the limited quota,” he said.
In the meantime, PT Pertamina for West Sumatra and Riau Marketing Branch Manager Pertamina Ardyan Adhitia said that what’s currently happening now is not scarcity of solar but the controlling measure of solar distribution.
"If we do not control the distribution, subsidized soil will be running out by mid-November,” he said.
However, Ardyan, said that not all gas filling stations in Padang are running out of solar; in fact, he said that several gas filling stations still have supply of solar because the controlling measure is done in rotation.
For the record, he said that solar consumption in West Sumatra province reaches 2,200 kiloliter per day.
"We are now controlling the distribution by around 10 percent," Ardyan said, adding that with this controlling measure, it is expected that fuel supply will last longer, which is until the end of the year.
ANDRI EL FARUQI
