Fuel shortage hampers coal transportation in South Kalimantan

The shortage of diesel oil has hampered the transportation of coal from major coal mining areas in South Kalimantan as many coal trailers faced difficulties to get fuel, Media Indonesia reported on Friday.

The daily reported that the shortage of diesel oil in the province has taken place for several weeks, causing a long line of coal trailers queuing up for fuel in most of the province's fuel stations.

Slamet, one of the drivers of the coal trailers in Plajau town of the Tanah Bambu regency, said that the shortage of diesel oil had taken place since last month. "We have to queue for hours to be able to get the fuel. The drivers often had to take a line up to one kilometer to wait for their turn to get the fuel," he added.

The shortage of the fuel supply has caused a serious problem to the transportation of coal in the province, one of the country's largest coal producing areas as most of the coal trailers had to wait for hours to get the fuel.

State-owned oil and gas company PT Pertamina marketing office in Banjarmasin confirmed that Pertamina faced difficulty to monitor distribution of the fuel because of the wide coverage area.

The office manager Iwan Hartawan promised that Pertamina would take charge against any displacement in the distribution of fuel oil. (*)