By Lian Cheng
KUCHING, June 22: Shell is limiting diesel supply to its retail fuel stations across Sarawak, leading to a notable shortage of diesel Statewide, alleged a local fuel station operator.
The operator told DayakDaily that Shell operators in Sarawak have received a notice on June 9, stating that Shell will start limiting its diesel supply to its retail outlets.
“We were informed that due to the high demand of diesel, by the month of August, Shell will completely run out of diesel. To ensure a longer period diesel supply, Shell had decided to set a supply quota for its retailers.
“So for more than 10 days now, I have been given much less diesel than before. Due to the limited supply, within two to three hours after we open our doors for business, diesel in my fuel stations will be sold out,” said the operator, who wished to remain anonymous.
Owning two fuel stations, the operator said the daily sale of diesel for the first one was about 25,000 litres but he has been allocated only about 10,000 litres since June 10.
For his second fueling station, the daily average consumption was about 12,000 litres, and the quota allocated to him has been about 2,000 litres per day.
He added that as far as he knew, this only happens among Shell’s fuel retail outlets and not in fuel stations under Petronas.
“For us who are Shell’s vendors, we are taking the wait and see approach. Once our diesel has run out, we will just put up a notice stating that it has been sold out and that is it. There is nothing we can do,” said the fuel station owner.
On how users would react to such a situation, he said as far as he knew, some users went about from one fuel station to another in order to fill up their tanks.
“I have been informed that the situation is the most serious in Kuching and Bintulu and less serious here in Sibu,” he said.
Efforts have been made to contact a Shell representative for further comment, but no response could be obtained as of press time. — DayakDaily
