By 9am today, most service stations in Lae city had run out of petrol.
This is a result of Puma Energy’s restrictions on fuel supply in the country due to ‘unresolved foreign currency constraints’.
At Top Town, the TotalEnergies service station put handwritten notices near its pumps, stating ‘No petrol’. Total gets its fuel from Puma Energy.
At Snackbar, Ryan Maiah of the Huon Gulf Service Station advised drivers at 11am today that petrol is no longer available.
“Puma Energy has fuel but they have an issue with the Government in terms of foreign exchange that is why they have not supplied fuel since last week,” he stated.
“The last time we received fuel was last week Thursday. We are now preserving fuel. I believe some service stations are rationing theirs but for us, we have stopped selling petrol.
“We still have zoom, diesel and kerosene but management might have to make a decision to implement similar restrictive measures.
“Around 9 or 10am today, we were taken aback when vehicles rushed here to get petrol and diesel. When we asked them, they said other service stations have closed. We might have to restrict some products soon, like diesel, because we need to preserve it for our generators.”
Maiah said he was advised by Puma Energy’s retail team that they are just waiting on the government’s decision, and he was given the assurance that they will be given first priority because the Huon Gulf Service Station, which is owned by Chemcare Group, is their biggest customer in Lae.
At Eriku, the Puma service station has imposed a K20 refuel per vehicle for both diesel and petrol.
Staff there have advised drivers that there will be no fuel in the country until further notice. As such, apart from rationing fuel, the station has reduced its trading hours. While it normally opens at 6.30am, it has started operating at 8am since Saturday, and will be closing early at 5pm, when it normally stays open until 8.30pm.
The Mobil Service Station at Snackbar ran out of petrol at 9am today, but topped up again at around 12pm.
The concern at the moment is, Mobil might also run out once all customers start flocking to its service stations when Puma Energy fuel stations run dry.