Fuel shortages prompt inspections and government intervention

Deputy Prime Minister Phiphat Ratchakitprakarn has been appointed by Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul to take charge of addressing the energy crisis and preventing oil shortages in the country.

Currently, Phiphat is head of the Joint Management and Monitoring Centre for the Situation in the Middle East.

Many gas stations have recently been unable to meet consumer demand, prompting officials from the Energy Business Department and police to carry out inspections of oil depots to check stock levels and prevent hoarding for profit.

Officers from the Department of Special Investigation inspected a major oil depot in Bangkok’s Phra Khanong district today to check its stocks of finished oil products.

Chatchai Khunlohit, deputy director-general of the Energy Business Department, said the field inspection was intended to ensure that the depot publicly announces the prices of refined oil products and reports details of its sales and reserves to the department on a daily basis.

Pol Maj Woranan Srilum, spokesman for the DSI, said that officials also inspected eight oil depots in four provinces today.

Meanwhile, in the central province of Ang Thong, officials from the Energy Business Department and provincial police have demanded that the owner of a major oil depot submit additional evidence regarding its distribution of finished oil products to service stations in several central provinces, after it was discovered that the depot had stored over 330,000 litres of fuel, exceeding its normal reserves.

Kongkiat Kittikhun, the provincial energy chief, said that the depot’s owner was given three days to provide an explanation and supporting evidence; otherwise, he could face charges of illegal fuel hoarding.

The offence carries a penalty of up to one year in prison and/or a fine not exceeding 100,000 baht upon conviction.

In Hat Yai district of Songkhla province, four Bangchak service stations have suspended operations after their owners said their oil supplier had informed them that they had reached their distribution quota for March and would resume deliveries in April.

The problem prompted the Songkhla deputy governor to intervene and order the supplier to resume fuel deliveries to the four stations. He reportedly said the suspension was caused by a miscommunication between the supplier and the service stations.