Fuel demand in Jakarta surges by 54 percent

Fuel demand in Jakarta and surrounding areas including Tangerang, Bogor and Depok rose sharply during the past three days due to fuel rush ahead of the government?s plan to raise the price of fuel prices, Suara Karya reported on Saturday.

Pertamina?s General Manager for Marketing Unit III, Tjandra Putra said that the fuel demand reached its record level on Friday rising by about 54 percent to more 17,000 kilo liters (17 million litters) from about 11,000 kiloliters in normal days.

?The surge in the demand is quite amazing,? he said.

The demand for fuel in Jakarta and its surrounding areas began to increase on Monday as the people started to flock almost all fuel stations amid the government?s plan to increase the fuel prices on Oct.1 (Saturday).

The fuel demand rose to 12,300 kiloliters on Monday, to 12,900 kiloliters on Tuesday, 14,200 kiloliters on Wednesday, to 15,800 kiloliters on Thursday and peaked at 117,061 kiloliters on Friday.

The government finally raised the price of premium fuel by 87.5 percent to Rp 4,500 per liter from Rp 2,400 per liter and the price of diesel oil by 104.76 percent to Rp 4,300 per liter from Rp 2,100 previously. The price of kerosene for households was also increased to Rp 2,000 per liter from Rp 700 previously. (*)