And while Shell Filling Station was able to restore supplies the following day (Sunday), Dennis Filling Station has continued to suffer intermittent supplies and has lost many hours in production.
The managing director of Dennis Filling Station, Gavin Blackbeard said since Christmas day they have run out of petrol on three different occasions. On one occasion they had no petrol for twelve hours and on the other two they had to do without for 24 hours.
“Even right now we have run out of petrol,” he said.
Caltex supplies the filling station, and with the New Year holiday approaching, which is likely to increase demand again; Blackbeard is worried that Caltex does not seem to have put in place measures to address the shortage.
He said they have been selling 40,000 litres per day but now because of the shortage of supplies, they have so far lost 60 hours of business time.
However, Caltex resident director, Philani Mazibuko said they are not aware of the fuel shortage in Serowe.
“There is plenty of petrol and there is no problem whatsoever. I am actually surprised to hear that,” he said.
He told Mmegi in an interview that Dennis Filling Station, which usually gets a supply once a week is now getting over five deliveries per week.
He stressed that he does not see the New Year holiday causing any problems because they have already put in place contingency plans to address the increase in demand for fuel over the festive season.
Shell, which also suffered the same fate on Christmas day, said it has since addressed the shortage.
A spokeswoman for the filling station said the problem was only experienced on Saturday and stressed that this did not impact much on their business.
She said they had made supplementary orders but could not get it because the suppliers were closed.
“We explained the situation to them and they helped us. We hope that this was a lesson and things will change,” she said.
She said they do not think that such a situation will recur over New Year because people are already on holiday and the demand is likely to be normal.
