KUALA LUMPUR, May 7 — The Petrol Dealers Association of Malaysia (PDAM) today sought to clarify the fuel shortage at service stations across the peninsula as Malaysians took to social media to complain about being stranded on their return journey after the long Raya holidays.

PDAM president Datuk Khairul Anwar Abdul Aziz told The Malaysian Insight that the shortage was due to an unexpected surge in demand, coupled with the massive congestion on highways that caused petrol tankers to be late in reaching service stations.

He added that the fuel tankers also had to ration their supplies at each place "as many petrol stations are facing shortage”.

"The sale is too high and the jam is too much.

"[For] the tankers to reach stations, they will have delays with coming and going [from station to station],” he was quoted saying.

According to Khairul, it wasn’t just service stations on the highways but also those along main roads, such as those heading to the peninsula east coast, that were out of petrol.

"This Raya is different from others, it was a surprise. The sale has been crazy. Usually it is 20 per cent up from normal days, this time it is 40 per cent up,” he was also quoted saying.

He told the news portal that the fuel shortage is expected to continue until tomorrow and will return to normal once the road travellers reach their destinations.

Yesterday, national news agency Bernama reported massive volume of traffic from the north and east of the peninsula heading towards the Klang Valley, as Malaysians made their way back to the city after the Hari Raya Aidilfitri celebration.

On Twitter, Malaysians shared their experiences of difficulties in refuelling their vehicles after the Hari Raya celebrations due to service stations running out of petrol, especially the cheaper RON 95 petrol priced at RM2.05 per litre.

Some stations reportedly only had the more expensive RON97 petrol priced at RM3.94 per litre.

Twitter users noted that the most affected service stations appeared to be in the peninsular east coast states of Kelantan and Terengganu, adding that water was also in short supply there.

But others tweeted that other states faced similar fuel shortages, listing parts of Perak, Kedah and Perlis.

Some Twitter users also related that some service stations rationed how much petrol they could buy.

One Kelantan traveller going from Krai to Gua Musang said the cap was RM20 while another said it was RM30.