CATCH 22 - FUEL BLUES

The Nias quake coupled with tsunami relief efforts further north is placing a heavy load on existing infrastructure in the region. The March 28th quake destroyed a large section of Singkil harbor and township and Sibolga is the next accessible port down the coast. The harbor is tiny and now totally overloaded as LCDs and Ro-Ro ferries wait for dock space to load trucks.


...Catch 22... so near yet so far...USN Yukon refueling USNR Mercy
just a few miles from BATAVIA Wednesday last week

BATAVIA ran low on fuel on the SE coast of Nias last week. We checked all options and even arranged to load fuel at sea from the US Navy. They had just bunkered from a tanker and had plenty so we called up the captain of the Niagara Falls to see if they could help. We explained that we wanted to continue our work and that the only alternative was to steam all the way to Sibolga and wait in line. The answer was a thumbs up and we agreed to head to calm water in the lee of Nias about 2 hours north. The sea was glassy flat and ideal to raft up so Niagara Falls sent a RIB over to check us out. Their engineers came aboard and measured and photographed our fuel filler cap so they could match it up with their hoses. Captain Dan on NF agreed that refueling was feasible but asked us to wait while he checked with head office.... a long wait turned into hours. Finally he called and said "Sorry, our onboard legal advisor says we have liability problems... oil spill risk in Indonesian waters..... regret it is No Go".

After thanking Dan and his crew for trying so hard to make it work we started engines and headed for Sibolga. A quick phone call to our agent confirmed what we feared. No fuel in town and no dock space! I urged him to try all avenues and advised him that we could get fuel tankers to drive down from Medan if there was no other alternative.

Thursday morning we were anchored in the outer harbor. After half a day of meetings and phone calls our agent smiled and said. "Good news! Pertamina (state owned fuel company) say their tanker is due in port next morning so we don't need the tankers from Medan" Sounded good, except for one tiny detail. We had missed banking hours, Friday was a national holiday, and the funds we had arranged were in a Medan bank!

Making the best of a bad situation we agreed that the ships crew could take some R&R over the weekend and we arranged for fueling and dock space on Monday morning.

Sounded like we were all set. Our fresh NW Medical team arrived on Saturday and we arranged for more boat drivers to drive up from Padang.

Monday morning we arranged to cash our funds in Medan and walk them to our agent's bank to ensure they would clear instantly so he could pay Pertamina and get the PO for the fuel as fast as possible... and then the call came. "The Sibolga branch of BNI is off line and they are trying to fix it!" We waited and waited and watched as our slot on the pier was taken by another ferry. The agent called "they have fixed the computer and I am standing in a long line" Bank customers had been waiting all day. The line at state owned BNI got slowly shorter but the clock hit 3pm and true to form the bank staff told the rest of the crowd to go home! Kissed goodbye a Monday departure and resigned ourselves to Tuesday.

Made sure our agent was first in line at the bank and walked our cash to Pertamina. Got our PO from them and left the agent to find us somewhere to load. At 2pm he managed to get BATAVIA alongside a Ro-Ro ferry and we were given permission to drive our water and fuel tankers on and off as they filled us. Water went smoothly... and then the knock on my hotel door. The agent was standing there, hat in hand and in this culture that is bad news. "Pertamina say they still have no fuel"

Resisting a strong urge to say something less than charitable about the state of the state, I bit my tongue and asked "Why did they take our money if they had no fuel?"

I knew that I was asking a question that could not be answered but sometimes I forget where I am and think that it should not be this way. Wednesday is a new day and we will try again. My mind turns to an old joke about lawyers and the Atlantic.