Petrol Station Strike Alert!

Today at 11:20 pm, I got an SMS from a friend who works at Shell that said:

"All petrol stations closed for 3 days starting midnight today due to dealers unable to reach agreement with govt."

Due to his affiliation with an established petrol company, I nicely forwarded the msg to my wife & closer friends. After that, I did some internet "research".

1. The Star online (7:30pm) denies the strike, and calls it rumours in Sabah.

2. Lowyat thread (PETROL STATION ON STRIKE!) has lotsa info, mostly nonsense, about this issue:
- Jam at KK and villages nearby as people queue up to fill up
- Some stations in Kuching are jammed up, Bintulu and Sibu ALL jammed packed
- KL has some congestion, but only at certain areas (I left office around 7+ pm today from KLCC area without any major jams)
- LDP (Kelana Jaya) petrol stations are CLEAR
- Klang also reported to be CLEAR
- Kepong petrol stations are packed (must be the bloody kiasu Chinese)
- Someone spotted Subang Petronas with "white and red paper around it" and closed.
- Someone said Shell didn't accept credit card today
- Someones uncle has a friend who owns a petrol station, and said its TRUE! hmm...

3. The Malay Mail online reported that motorist have to pay cash (no more using credit card), while petrol station dealers "jostle with the government" to get their way.

From the same article, I think this snippet started it all:

"In fact, in a show of force, some 3,500 petrol stations had threatened to shut down for eight hours on June 26. However, yesterday, PDAM called off the strike after it was hinted at that the government had agreed to the association’s demands."


The funny responses I read (and personally thought of - I admit) was about the unability to go to work, coz no petrol... *chuckle*

When I asked for clarification from my friend at Shell, this is his reply:

"I also not sure, was passing rumour only. Quite bored today... so trying to be useful."

!@#$%^&*(*&^%$#@!