The situation of running out of gas, stopping selling, or only selling limited to 1-1.5 liters is still happening at many gas stations in Ho Chi Minh City on October 9.
State media announced on the same day and said that most of the big gas stations in District 1, Phu Nhuan, Tan Binh, and Go Vap are either covered with canvas or covered with tarpaulins, and only a few gas stations still sell their products.
There are some private gas stations that are said to continue to sell gasoline but limit the purchase of fewer than 1.5 liters for each customer. The incident caused a crowd of people to fill up with gas and jostle. Also on October 9, state media said that due to the frustration of having to wait to buy gasoline, a customer chased a petrol pump worker with a knife.
In the video clip posted on the media and social networks from the camera of the gas station recorded, the incident took place on the evening of October 6, because there were too many customers but only two petrol pump staff. Just then, a customer who was also waiting to fill up with a knife rushed over, shoved, and chased the petrol pump worker who ran away. Mr. Le Van Bau, the owner of the above petrol station then explained to the media about the above situation that, because the nearby gas stations were closed for sale, customers flocked to his company’s gas station to fill up. Demand spiked, while businesses were suffering losses and had to cut staff, causing overload, customers had to wait for a long time, leading to the above frustrations.
A petroleum distributor on October 9 was quoted by Tuoi Tre newspaper as saying that due to supply disruptions, including storm impacts, the transportation of gasoline from the Central region to the South was affected. Currently, according to this enterprise, the leading providers offer low discounts, plus the operating and transportation costs, so the petroleum retailers’ profits decrease.
Regarding the fact that hundreds of gas stations in the Mekong Delta provinces, Ho Chi Minh City, and other provinces hung the sign “out of gas,” the Ministry of Finance confirmed, the reason was due to the decrease in import volume and the decrease in inventories in Vietnam’s key traders. Particularly in the third quarter, imported gasoline decreased by 40% compared to the second quarter and only 19/33 key enterprises imported petroleum products.
Thoibao.de (Translated)
