The supply of petrol and diesel in Limbang, in northern Sarawak, has fully returned to normal today after oil tankers from Petronas and Shell began transporting in fuel into the district today.

Sarawak Domestic Trade, Cooperatives and Consumerism Ministry office deputy director Abd Hafiz A Rahim said oil supplier Petronas, which brought 48,000 litres of petrol from Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, reached Limbang at 12 noon today, while the supply of another 48,000 litres by Shell, had already arrived at 7am.

He said as soon as his office received information on the supply shortage in Limbang two days ago, his office worked hard to overcome the problem, including applying the Control of Supplies Act 1961 to request suppliers to expedite the supply to the area.

According to him, the shortage was due to panic-buying by the public and the difficulty to access Limbang after several major roads from Bintulu were cut off due to the floods, and its supply had reached critically low levels last night.

“Full cooperation was also received from the Limbang Resident’s office which requested Brunei to allow the tankers carrying fuel to cross its borders with tax exemption,” he said when contacted in Kuching.

“As of now the supply in all other areas in Sarawak is sufficient, we are closely monitoring all the areas here during this flood season to ensure that all supplies, especially necessity items, are sufficient,” he added.

Supply in Kapit ran out four days ago

Earlier, it was reported that residents of the Song district in the Kapit division have begun to feel uneasy after supply of petrol ran out four days ago.

The shortage had caused problems to those who need to travel by land or rivers.

“Parents also face difficulty sending their children to school by car or boat,” Daisy Unggang told Bernama .

She said petrol supply sent on barges from Kapit was supposed to arrive in Song on Wednesday night, however, a trip to the petrol station in town this morning revealed that the station had not been restocked.

Moreover, she had to push her motorcycle home two kilometres away after she exhausted her supply of petrol.

She said the shortage not only occurred at petrol stations on land, but also at floating fuel stations.

“Now we can only wait for barges to bring in petrol from Kapit,” she added.

According to her sister Doris, there were residents of longhouses who came by boat from the upstream of Sungai Katibas who could not return home after they ran out of petrol.

“They had to stay over with relatives or at a guest house which is very troublesome,” she said.

Kapit Domestic Trade, Cooperatives and Consumerism Ministry chief Jubin Janggong, when contacted, said they have not received any complaints on the matter and will investigate the reason why supply of petrol had not arrived.

- Bernama