CANGGU, BALI — Imagine waking up and your whole village is out of gas. Not low. Out. That’s what creator JT Jarrett Thomas found Thursday morning in Canggu, on the southwest coast of Bali, Indonesia.
“There is no gas where I live now,” he said in a video update. “I can’t move my car, my bike, my motorbike. I can’t go anywhere.” His village is dry, his town is dry — and the few people who stockpiled fuel and are selling it at jacked-up prices are almost out too.
At stations in Bali’s bigger cities, he says the lines are running three, four, five hours deep. JT has spent the last 12 months telling his followers the same thing every day: have a plan. Now, in his words, he gets to go first.
How did this happen? The crisis started Sunday, October 12, when a fuel tanker suffered an anchor failure while trying to unload, delaying deliveries to Bali’s main terminals. Rough seas slowed other shipments, demand for the island’s subsidized Pertalite fuel surged, and panic buying drained pump after pump. Lines have stretched up to two kilometers in Karangasem regency, some stations have posted “no fuel” signs, and Denpasar moved its schools online from October 15 to 17 to keep families off the roads.
Officials insist the fuel itself exists — this is a distribution breakdown. State energy company Pertamina has apologized, rushed in extra supply (roughly 58 million additional liters arriving October 14–17), and ordered stations in the hardest-hit areas to stay open 24 hours. Bali’s governor is urging everyone to stay calm and only fill up as needed. JT says a replenishment boat is promised for the major stations on Friday — and if it doesn’t come, in his words, “it’s gonna get real tricky.”
His heart, he says, is with the locals — the drivers, delivery riders and workers who have to earn every single day just to eat, in an economy that runs on motorbikes. He’s not panicking yet: he’s got his plan, and he’s walking where he needs to go. But not everybody has a plan, and not everybody has savings to sit still while the island waits on a boat.
Even in the middle of it, Bali’s spirit is showing. As drivers baked in hours-long lines this week, one visitor was filmed buying cold drinks and ice cream and handing them out to strangers stuck in the queue — and the video went viral, because that’s just who these people are.
JT ended his update with a simple ask: pray for the people of Bali and Indonesia — “absolutely the kindest people on earth,” he says, and they do not deserve this. FreddyO family, we’re joining him in that prayer. Keep Bali lifted — the drivers, the families, the little shops that can’t open without fuel. JT promised another update Friday morning, and we’ll be watching and updating this story as the island waits on that boat. 🙏
Sources: JT Jarrett Thomas (@jt.jarrett.thomas) on-the-ground video reports; Associated Press; The Bali Times; detikBali local reporting.
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