Hundreds of fishermen in Lombok, West Nusa Tenggara, have been unable to go to sea for the last four days due to a fuel shortage in their area. Fishermen from Ampenan, Batulayar and Pemenang in West Lombok have been forced to leave their fishing boats idle, using their time instead to repair damage to their boats and fishing nets.
“I have not gone to sea for four days. The fuel supply is limited at the moment. If there is any fuel, the price skyrockets to Rp 10,000 (approximately US$1.11) per liter,” M. Mursim, a fishermen from Ampenan, said. The normal price of fuel is Rp 4,500 per liter.
He said that 30 liters of fuel is required for a boat to go to sea. “I don’t want to gamble. What if I don’t get a good catch? I will just lose money,” he said.
Mursim said his livelihood depended on fishing, relying on it to feed his wife and four children.
“It is very hard at the moment with the price of basic commodities such as rice and cooking oil creeping up. We borrow from cooperatives and loan sharks to survive,” Sukmawati, Mursim’s wife, said.
In Batulayar, fishermen find themselves in a similar predicament. Every morning hundreds of boats are parked in rows along the coastline. Only a handful of boats attempt to sail manually when the wind permits.
“I have to go to sea in any way I can. If I don’t, we’ll find it hard to eat,” said Kadir, a fisherman from Batulayar.
However, Kadir said that catches from manual sailing were barely enough to make ends meet in his own kitchen.
Struggling to survive, the fishermen hope that the price of fuel will return to normal soon.
West Nusa Tenggara councilors asked representatives from state oil and gas company Pertamina’s Ampenan depot for an explanation on the fuel shortage.
After the meeting, councilor Husni Jibril said the fuel shortage had been caused by a lack of transparency within Pertamina.
“We’ve urged Pertamina to provide the public with an explanation on the fuel shortage to prevent them from panicking,” Husni said, adding that some people had taken advantage of the situation by hoarding fuel and selling it later at a much higher price.
Ari Wibowo, head of Pertamina’s Ampenan depot, said the fuel shortage had been caused by a delay in the shipment of fuel from Karang Asem in Bali. Fuel shortages had also affected parts of Bali, he said. “That is the reason we were only able to distribute a third of the normal consumption,” he said.
Ari said the situation is expected to return to normal within the next two days after the arrival of 1,600 tons of fuel from Bali.
Panca Nugraha
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