Makassar's Petrol Queues Reshape Daily Movement Across the City
For more than a week, motorists in Makassar, South Sulawesi, have been queuing for hours at petrol stations, with lines for subsidised fuels Pertalite and Biosolar stretching hundreds of metres and, in some cases, several kilometres. The pressure on fuel supply has become severe enough that the city government has stepped in with emergency measures designed to reduce vehicle movement rather than wait for supply to normalise.
Schools Go Online, Civil Servants Stay Home
Makassar Mayor Munafri 'Appi' Arifuddin directed the city's Education Agency to issue a circular requiring students from early childhood education through junior high school to shift to online learning. According to that circular, the remote-schooling period runs from 12 to 19 September. The mayor framed the measure explicitly as a mobility intervention: keeping students at home during school hours reduces the number of vehicles on the road and, by extension, the number of people needing to fill up.
Civil servants faced a parallel instruction. The city government implemented a work-from-home scheme for Monday and Tuesday, 14 and 15 September. Authorities described the arrangement as temporary, with further evaluation tied to how fuel availability develops and whether government services can continue to function adequately.
Truck refuelling has also been shifted to evening hours to ease daytime congestion at stations, according to details first reported by The Jakarta Post.
What Is Driving the Queues
The source text does not specify the precise cause of the supply disruption, so it would be inaccurate to point to a single factor here. What is clear is that demand for Pertalite and Biosolar, both subsidised products, is outpacing what stations can dispense during normal operating hours, and that the city administration has chosen demand-side management as its immediate tool while supply-side solutions are presumably being pursued separately.
Practical Realities for Visitors and Residents
For anyone travelling to or within Makassar during this period, the fuel situation has a few concrete implications. Ride-hailing and taxi availability may be tighter than usual if drivers are spending significant time queuing. Journey times could be longer near petrol stations, which tend to create secondary traffic congestion on surrounding streets. Travellers with rental vehicles should plan to refuel early in the day or late at night when truck refuelling has been moved, and should expect to wait.
The online-schooling period ends 19 September, after which school-run traffic will return. Civil servant WFH was set for only two days, so government offices should be operating normally beyond that window, subject to any extensions the city announces.
Why It Matters for Hosts
Independent accommodation operators in Makassar should communicate proactively with arriving guests about current conditions. A brief note at booking confirmation or check-in explaining that petrol queues are affecting traffic patterns, that ride-hailing response times may be slower, and that the city centre could see unusual congestion near stations will set realistic expectations and reduce guest frustration. Hosts who offer vehicle hire or airport transfers should factor in extra journey time and, if possible, ensure their own fleet is fuelled up in advance to avoid last-minute scrambles.
Details in this post were first reported by The Jakarta Post, based on reporting by Divya Karyza, published 14 September 2026. This post was produced by the Qontaktly travel blog.
First reported by thejakartapost.com.