A petrol station in HCM City. The city is helping gasoline transport vehicles enter the inner city area during rush hours. — VNA/VNS Photo

HCM CITY — In order to create favourable and timely conditions for petroleum businesses, the HCM City's Department of Transport will support gasoline transport vehicles entering the inner city area during traffic peak times.

At rush hours, tank trucks are banned from entering inner city areas, leading to tight fuel supplies for certain stations, Nguyễn Nguyên Phương, deputy director of the department, said.

Accordingly, the Department of Industry and Trade needs to provide a list of businesses and the number of petrol transport vehicles needed, and send it to the Department of Transport for consideration.

The Department of Transport also proposed that the City Police help keep traffic flowing and create the best conditions for petrol tankers to travel smoothly, especially during non-rush hours of 9am - 4pm and 6pm - 10pm, to ensure the supply of petroleum for production, business and consumption of the people.

The Department of Industry and Trade proposes to support the petrol stations from now to November 1.

On October 10 and 11, many petrol stations were forced to temporarily close due to a shortage of fuel in the city. Long queues at petrol stations have frustrated motorists.

According to the City's Directorate of Market Surveillance, 121 out of 550 petrol stations in the city had no more gasoline to sell while the remaining stations were still operating normally. There were not instances of hoarding of goods nor price gouging. The staff of the Directorate of Market Surveillance also simultaneously paid visits to petrol stations citywide to check the situation.

A number of petrol stations temporarily stopped selling in Thủ Đức City, Gò Vấp District, Districts 3, 4, 5, and 8.

On October 11, even stations in the Petrolimex system lacked gasoline to sell. For instance, staff at the gas filling station at the corner of the intersection of Trần Phú and Lê Hồng Phong streets in District 5 announced that the station was out of gas when a car came in. However, in the evening, this gas station was selling fuel again; therefore, despite the rain, there were crowds of drivers at the station.

Elsewhere in the southern province of Bình Dương, many gas stations in Thủ Dầu Một, Thuận An and Tân Uyên also closed because they ran out of petrol.

Kiên Giang and Đồng Tháp provinces in the Mekong Delta have more than 600 petrol stations each but many of the stations have closed temporarily as they have no more petrol to sell.

Consequently, locals had to go a long distance to fill their vehicles but they were allowed to buy only VNĐ20,000-VNĐ30,000 (US$1.25) of petrol.  VNS