Petrol and diesel ran out in Sungai Kolok district of Narathiwat province on Sunday amid speculation and demand caused by the severely flooded adjacent state of Kelantan in Malaysia.
Petrol stations in Sungai Kolok district, Narathiwat, are closed Sunday due to oil shortage. (File photo)
All six petrol stations in Sungai Kolok were closed Sunday afternoon as they had run out of stocks. Local operators said Thai and Malaysian people in the areas had rushed the petrol stations to buy oil.
Malaysians swept across the border after floods closed petrol stations in the adjacent Rantau Panjang town of Kelantan. The Sungai Kolok petrol stations were unable to get fresh supplies as distributors do not work on Sunday.
Some Sungai Kolok residents bought excessive amounts of supplies to sell to the Malaysians who needed petrol for their boats. The locals cashed in by buying diesel and petrol at 27.88 baht and 39.45 a litre and selling it to the Rantau Panjang visitors for 40-50 baht a litre.
Some Sungai Kolok people had their vehicles filled for New Year trips.
The flooding has reversed the normal situation in the district where oil buyers usually seek cheaper smuggled supplies from Malaysia.
Floodwater draining from Rantau Panjang into the Sungai Kolok River caused the inundation on the Thai side in Sungai Kolok and Tak Bai district in Narathiwat to subside slowly.
In Yala province, a discharge from the bulging Bang Lang dam in Bannang Sata district has flooded low-lying areas near the Pattani River, but did not affect Muang Yala district which has had less recent rain.
The extra discharge from Bang Lang dam continued for three days to Sunday as the 1.4-billion-cubic-metre was 99.42% full.
The discharge brought giant catfish from the reservoir of the dam downstream and locals were catching them. The price of giant catfish meat rose from 80 baht to 200 baht per kilogramme in Muang Yala district on Sunday.