PETALING JAYA, MALAYSIA - More petrol stations are facing a shortage of supply and the problem is spreading from the Klang Valley to several states.

However, Petroleum Dealers Asso-ciation of Malaysia president Abdul Wahid Bidin said the situation was expected to improve by the middle of next week as more lorry drivers return to work after the Hari Raya holidays.

He said the problem had spread from the Klang Valley to Johor, Perak and the east coast states on Tuesday.

"More than 100 petrol stations had to suspend operations due to the shortage of supply two days ago but the situation has improved slightly," he said in an interview yesterday.

He said the petrol stations involved were Shell, BHP and Caltex but there were no complaints of shortages at Mobil and Esso stations.

Abdul Wahid cautioned that petrol stations would face the same problem again if they did not get their supplies 48 hours after their pumps first run dry.

"I am confident that this problem will be solved by the middle of next week with more lorry drivers getting back to work by this weekend after their Hari Raya break," he said.

Last week, the balik kampung rush for Hari Raya turned chaotic in the Klang Valley as many motorists who wanted to fill up their tanks were faced with "out of stock" signs at pumps.

The shortage in supply is believed to be linked to the recent 10sen reduction in petrol as dealers hedged their bets by keeping little stock.

The surge in demand came when motorists filled up to return to their hometowns.

Unlike previous years when petrol station operators normally kept a supply of seven to eight days, this time round, they were keeping only a three-day supply before Hari Raya.

The move was to avoid facing losses following the reduction in fuel prices.

Each petrol station normally stocks around 200,000 litres per day and lost up to RM20,000 after the Government reduced fuel prices by 10sen.

They stand to lose some RM140,000 if they were to keep seven days' supply.

Shell Malaysia Trading Sdn Bhd said in a statement that only several of its retail stations were still experiencing fuel shortage.

"We continue to progressively restore fuel to the affected stations," it said.

Petronas Petrol Dealers Association president Abu Samah Bachik said there was no such problem at its stations and all were operating as usual.