Pertamini and Bottled Fuel in Bali: When to Use Them

01

What a Pertamini is

A Pertamini is a small roadside dispenser, usually a metal cabinet with a glass cylinder and a hand-operated or small electric pump, run by a shop or a family. Despite the name it is not part of Pertamina: the seller buys fuel from a station and resells it.

Even smaller sellers keep petrol in one-litre glass bottles on a wooden rack in front of a warung. Both are everywhere in Bali, including villages far from any SPBU.

02

What it costs

Expect to pay more than the SPBU price, typically a few thousand rupiah more per litre, and more again during a shortage. Ask the price before they pour; it is normal to agree on a number of litres or a rupiah amount first.

Measures are less exact than at a station. A bottle sold as one litre may hold a little less, and a Pertamini counter is not checked the way an SPBU meter is.

03

How to judge the fuel

Petrol should be clear, with Pertalite light green-yellow and Pertamax blue-ish. Cloudy fuel, layers or bits in the bottom of a bottle are reasons to walk on. A seller with a busy, fast-moving stock is a better bet than dusty bottles in the sun.

Buy only what you need to reach the next SPBU with fuel, rather than filling the tank. If the engine runs rough afterwards, stop and ask a workshop; do not keep riding on it.

04

When to use one, and when to wait

A Pertamini is the right call when the warning light is on and the nearest station with fuel is beyond your range, or the queue there is hours long. It is the wrong call when an SPBU with fuel and a short queue is ten minutes away.

Traceby Fuel shows Pertamini sellers as small dots next to the stations, with reports from other drivers, so you can see both before you decide.

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