Jakarta. A higher-up at the state-run energy firm Pertamina briefly commented Friday on private retailers Vivo and BP-AKR’s decision to walk away from its base fuel purchase deals, only saying that what had happened was “the government’s domain”.

Private-run gas stations have been facing a stock crunch since late August. The Indonesian government does not let the retailers get more supplies from abroad, but rather pushes them to buy base fuel from the trading subsidiary Pertamina Patra Niaga. Vivo and BP-AKR, however, dropped the deal as the base fuel did not meet their criteria. Speaking to reporters on the margins of a Swiss forum in Jakarta, Pertamina’s business sustainability director Agung Wicaksono commented on the latest developments.

“It’s not [our] domain. Well, that’s the government’s policy,”  Agung said.

Just a day earlier, Energy Minister Bahlil Lahadalia had said that the government would not intervene in the base fuel dispute as it was “purely a business-to-business matter”. The Jakarta Globe also brought up Bahlil's recent statement during the door-step interview with Agung.

“Well, it’s still a government policy,” Agung told the press before leaving the building.

A base fuel does not have mixtures of additives. 

Vivo initially planned on buying 40,000 barrels out of a 100,000-barrel cargo imported by Pertamina. The company, owned by Vitol Asia Pte Ltd, pulled out of the deal after lab tests found the base fuel had 3.5 percent ethanol content. While it was still far below the government’s 20 percent permissible ethanol threshold, Vivo chose not to proceed as it did not meet its product specifications. The same goes for BP-AKR’s joint venture APR.

Another private retailer Shell Indonesia said that they were still in negotiations with Pertamina, but admitted that its gas stations in Java island could run out of gasoline by Thursday night.

The Globe looked around the private-run gas stations in South Jakarta’s Pangeran Antasari later that day.

As of 1.30 p.m., a Shell station in the area had run out of all variants except diesel, which are commonly used by big trucks. Nearby BP and Vivo stations faced similar shortages, although the latter still had the RON 92, which had a minimum octane level of 92, in stock at the time.

Indonesia has granted private fuel retailers a 10 percent bigger import quota in 2025 compared to 2024 levels, but has exhausted their supplies before the year ends. The additional quota ranges between 7,000 and 44,000 kiloliters, according to anti-monopoly agency KPPU’s estimates. Pertamina Patra Niaga, on the other hand, gets fourteenfold of what the private companies receive, reaching 613,000 kiloliters in extra import. KPPU has slammed the restrictions as being unfair, while warning it could further fuel Pertamina’s dominance in the market.

“We have actually asked the government to increase our import quota since June 2025, following a jump in demand. … However, we have only received their response on July 17, ... which stated that the import quota was capped at a level that is 10 percent higher than what [companies] sold in 2024,” Shell Indonesia’s boss Ingrid Siburian told lawmakers on Wednesday.