Floods hamper fuel supply in West Kalimantan
Friday, January 7 2005 - 02:30 AM WIB
Floods which hit West Kalimantan during the past several days have seriously hampered fuel supply to several important towns in the province. The distribution snag has caused a sharp increase in fuel prices in the affected areas, Kompas reported on Friday.
M. Iskandar, the head of the state oil and gas firm Pertamina office in Pontianak, said that almost all rivers, which were used to distribute the fuels in the province, were overflowed due to heavy rains during the past several years.
"The flood has cut the fuel supply," he said in a meeting with a group of students protesting the sharp increase in the fuel prices in several parts of the province recently. "The surge in the price is caused purely by the distribution problem, not due to the supply shortage," he added.
According to him, the distribution difficulty has caused the price of Premium fuel to increase to Rp 5,000 per litter from its normal price of Rp 1,850 per litter, while the price of diesel oil surged to Rp 4,000 from Rp 1,650 per litter. The price of kerosene jumped to Rp 4,000 per litter from Rp 1,200 per litter. (*)