Jakarta. Shell Indonesia has officially run out of gasoline nationwide, leaving its stations without Shell Super, V-Power, or V-Power Nitro+ as of Friday, Oct. 3, 2025. The company announced the shortage on its website, saying fuel would be unavailable “until further notice.”

The development follows earlier remarks by Shell Indonesia President Director Ingrid Siburian, who told lawmakers that fuel stocks had already dwindled to just five stations before being exhausted on Thursday night.

Private fuel retailers, including Shell, BP, and Vivo, have been facing shortages since late August. Rising demand since mid-2025 has strained supplies, but government restrictions on imports have complicated efforts to restock. The Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry (ESDM) has barred private operators from bringing in additional cargoes, urging them instead to buy base fuel from Pertamina’s trading arm, Patra Niaga.

Shell agreed in principle to source fuel from Pertamina as long as it remained free of additives, but no deal has been finalized. Vivo and BP-AKR initially accepted Pertamina’s offer but later walked away after tests revealed the fuel contained 3.5 percent ethanol. Although well below the 20 percent threshold allowed under Indonesian regulations, the content did not meet the companies’ product specifications.

As a result, Pertamina is left sitting on 100,000 barrels of imported fuel that private operators declined to absorb. The dispute underscores concerns among private retailers about fuel quality standards and their limited market share compared with Pertamina.

The Energy Ministry summoned representatives from Shell, BP, and Vivo on Friday afternoon to discuss the stalled agreements. “We will meet at the Directorate General of Oil and Gas at 3:30 p.m. to clarify the situation,” said Director General Laode Sulaeman. The meeting was still underway at the time of publication.

A visit by the Globe to South Jakarta’s Pangeran Antasari confirmed that Shell stations had run out of gasoline, with only diesel available for heavy vehicles. Nearby BP and Vivo outlets reported similar constraints, although Vivo still offered limited RON 92 fuel.

Indonesia raised private retailers’ import quotas by 10 percent this year, but their allotments remain a fraction of Pertamina’s. While companies such as Shell received between 7,000 and 44,000 kiloliters in extra quota, Pertamina was granted 613,000 kiloliters, 14 times as much. The competition watchdog KPPU has criticized the disparity as anticompetitive, warning it could further entrench Pertamina’s dominance in the retail fuel market.

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